scholarly journals Ār konakhāne / ‘Somewhere Else’: Utopian Resonances in Lila Majumdar’s Autobiographical Writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-178
Author(s):  
Barnita Bagchi
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Speculative Fiction ◽  
Woman Writer ◽  
Autobiographical Writing ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Children And Young Adults ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article examines the autobiographical writings of Lila Majumdar, 1908–2007, a writer most famous for zany, fantastical, defamiliarizing, speculative fiction for children and young adults. Majumdar was an influential maker of cultural history. While her natal Ray/Raychaudhuri family comprised master entertainers who simultaneously brought reformist, innovative values into the public sphere of the arts, the leading woman writer from this milieu, in her autobiographical and memoir-based volumes Ār konakhāne (‘Somewhere Else’, [1967] 1989), Pākdaṇḍī (‘Winding, Hilly Road’, [1986] 2001), and Kheror khātā (‘Miscellany’ or ‘Scrapbook’, [1982] 2009), imaginatively created utopias. These ‘otherwheres’, to use a word that captures utopian connotations that she creates in her writing, give voice to the marginal and the liminal. We find in her autobiographical writing the dual urge of longing for a utopian elsewhere, and a dissatisfaction with all the places one finds temporary mooring in.

scholarly journals Contested Numbers: Census Controversies and the Press in 1960s Nigeria

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Gerardo Serra ◽  
Morten Jerven
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
The State ◽  
Population Census ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Press ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
The Public Sphere

Abstract This article reconstructs the controversies following the release of the figures from Nigeria's 1963 population census. As the basis for the allocation of seats in the federal parliament and for the distribution of resources, the census is a valuable entry point into postcolonial Nigeria's political culture. After presenting an overview of how the Africanist literature has conceptualized the politics of population counting, the article analyses the role of the press in constructing the meaning and implications of the 1963 count. In contrast with the literature's emphasis on identification, categorization, and enumeration, our focus is on how the census results informed a broader range of visual and textual narratives. It is argued that analysing the multiple ways in which demographic sources shape debates about trust, identity, and the state in the public sphere results in a richer understanding of the politics of counting people and narrows the gap between demographic and cultural history.

scholarly journals A National Public Sphere? Analyzing the Language, Location, and Form of Newspapers in Finland, 1771–1917

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Jani Marjanen ◽  
Ville Vaara ◽  
Antti Kanner ◽  
Hege Roivainen ◽  
Eetu Mäkelä ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Mass Medium ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
The Public ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Newspaper History

This article uses metadata from serial publications as a means of modelling the historical development of the public sphere. Given that a great deal of historical knowledge is generated through narratives relying on anecdotal evidence, any attempt to rely on newspapers for modeling the past challenges customary approaches in political and cultural history. The focus in this article is on Finland, but our approach is also scalable to other regions. During the period 1771–1917 newspapers developed as a mass medium in the Grand Duchy of Finland within two imperial configurations (Sweden until 1809 and Russia in 1809–1917), and in the two main languages – Swedish and Finnish. Finland is an ideal starting point for conducting comparative studies in that its bilingual profile already includes two linguistically separated public spheres that nonetheless were heavily connected. Our particular interest here is in newspaper metadata, which we use to trace the expansion of public discourse in Finland by statistical means. We coordinate information on publication places, language, number of issues, number of words, newspaper size, and publishers, which we compare with existing scholarship on newspaper history and censorship, and thereby offer a more robust statistical analysis of newspaper publishing in Finland than has previously been possible. We specifically examine the interplay between the Swedish- and Finnish-language newspapers and show that, whereas the public discussions were inherently bilingual, the technological and journalistic developments advanced at different pace in the two language forums. This analysis challenges the perception of a uniform public sphere in the country. In addition, we assess the development of the press in comparison with the production of books and periodicals, which points toward the specialization of newspapers as a medium in the period after 1860. This confirms some earlier findings about Finnish print production. We then show how this specialization came about through the establishment of forums for local debates that other less localized print media such as magazines and books could not provide.

scholarly journals La recepción de Lucie Delarue-Mardrus en la Edad de Plata: tensiones en torno a autoría y feminidad

Çédille ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 103-128
Author(s):  
Isabel Clúa Gines ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Woman Writer ◽  
Public Figure ◽  
The Public ◽  
Female Condition ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Enrique Gomez Carrillo ◽  
Edad De Plata ◽  
The Public Sphere

"The aim of this work is to reflect on the construction of the woman writer as a public figure based on the case of Lucie Delarue-Mardrus and her projection in Spain, placing her in the framework of the tensions that surround the female condition at the beginning of the twentieth century. Although her work is translated and reviewed, it is her public figure the element that focuses the attention of the critics, as confirmed by the various references by prominent chroniclers (Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Isabel Oyarzábal, María Luz Morales or Teresa de Escoriaza). This phenomenon allows us to see the key elements of the feminine authorial construction, as the incorporation of strategies of the emerging idea of celebrity and its use as an essential mechanism to deal with the difficulty of being a woman in the public sphere"

Weimar Bodies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ute Planert
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Weimar Republic ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Human Reproduction ◽  
Gainful Employment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Gendered Bodies ◽  
The Public Sphere

Like the arts and politics, sexuality, bodies, and the gender order in the Weimar Republic were sites of experimentation in and with modernity. The First World War and the revolution had accelerated the breakthrough of women into arenas such as politics, the public sphere, and professional gainful employment. Big cities provided space for sexual libertinage, in which the transgression of heterosexual norms was possible. A rationalization of sexuality took place, which combined increased freedoms and liberties with attempts at regulation. Sports became an important transmission belt for ideas of discipline, efficiency, and self-optimization. The Weimar welfare state combined the entitlement to live a healthy life with the duty to actively retain the health of one’s body. The latter included considering future generations via eugenicist ideas. A far-reaching consensus on the value of eugenics emerged, yet only under the pressure of the world economic crisis did it materialize in concrete proposals to recalibrate social policy. The final years of the Weimar Republic were marked by a remasculinization of the public sphere and a partial return to more traditional views on gender roles. Overall, gender and gendered bodies, sexuality and human reproduction, were inherent elements of the political conflicts that shaped modern society. At the end of the Weimar Republic, they were more contested than ever.

scholarly journals Scenekunstens (for)handlingsrom etter 22. juli

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siemke Böhnisch
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Symbolic Space ◽  
Terror Attacks ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Strongly Connected ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Context Specific

In this article I discuss theatre’s scope of action after the 2011 terror attacks in Norway (“22. July”), with an emphasis on independent theatre, aesthetic heteronomy and the public sphere. A theatre manager’s (Jon Refsdal Moe) retrospect account of and reflections upon a case of self-censoring is the starting point for my (re-)examination of the arguments and dynamics concerning some of the most prominent contentious 22. July performances. I discuss how the controversies can be understood and dealt with, and how they are connected to theatre’s scope of action and place in society today. In my argument, I differentiate between the public sphere as an arena for discussion and debate (which theatre, as an institution, more or less has lost its impact on), and the public, conceived as an imagined community (which theatre still is strongly connected to, as assigned a publics’ symbolic space). I argue that the controversies about the 22. July performances, as well as the usage of marginal spaces, have to be understood as part of a far-reaching cultural dynamics after the terror attacks, concerning not only the arts, but numerous sectors of society, and that the performances aesthetic heteronomy requires a work- and context specific approach.

The general peer: the public sphere in the age of profilicity (profile-based identity)

Kybernetes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Georg Moeller
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Niklas Luhmann ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Academic System ◽  
The Public Sphere

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to outline the concept of the general peer in detail and to show its relation to the relevant social theories by Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas. It also aims at illustrating the concept with concrete examples from the academic system and the arts/mass media. Design/methodology/approach This paper introduces the concept of the “general peer” as an alternative to the concept of the “public sphere.” It situates the concept in the context of the concept of “profilicity” indicating a profile-based mode of identity. Findings The paper suggests that the concept of the general peer describes actually existing forms of the public better than the concept of the public sphere. It relates the general peer to second-order observation and functional differentiation prevalent in contemporary society. Research limitations/implications The paper suggests that the concept of the general peer denotes a significant element of the constitution of profile-based identity (profilicity) in contemporary society. Practical implications The concepts of the general peer and profilicity may be used to conduct empirical research on the constitution of identity and the curation of profiles in various social contexts. Social implications The paper can help understanding how to develop and assess profiles and their impact in contemporary social contexts. Originality/value The two concepts general peer and profilicity are theoretical innovations.

Re Reading the Encyclopedia: Architectural Theory and the Formation of the Public in Late-Eighteenth-Century France

1994 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Lavin
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Architectural Theory ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
The Public ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Modern Form

Architecture is commonly considered the most public of the arts, as if inherently, even though the concept of the public only began to acquire its modern form in the course of the eighteenth century. Paradoxically, architecture itself promoted this assumption by helping to construct the public sphere during the same period. Architectural theory played a leading role in this negotiation-as a material product embedded in the publishing industry and in particular reading practices, and as a conceptual apparatus circulating in a new discursive realm. In the following essay, a text by Quatremère de Quincy that explicitly addressed the needs of a public in-the-making will serve as a vehicle for the examination of these larger issues.

scholarly journals Young adults and the digital public sphere: a cross-cultural perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 36-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheline Frenette ◽  
Marie-France Vermette
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Motivating Factor

This paper deals with the engagement of young adults in the digital public sphere and attempts to identify some important issues related to the phenomenon as well as some of the challenges for future research. It has often been asserted that the newer generations are disenchanted with traditional party politics and prefer alternative forms of political engagement. Concurrently, it has been stated that, because of their pervasive involvement with ICTs and the unique opportunities they offer, the digital public sphere has become a place of choice for them to enact these newer forms of political engagement. The hypothesis that young adults are part of a digital generation that has redefined its modes of functioning within society has been a motivating factor for a study conducted among university students in four different countries1 to see how these new practices play out in the various spheres of their lives. Among other issues, we explore to what extent and in what ways the Internet has become a new vector for political participation among young adults. We will use part of these data to support our reflection on young adults’ involvement in the digital public sphere and to re-examine the classical premises of what constitutes the public sphere. We conclude by sharing our insights on this phenomenon and discussing further avenues for research in this area.

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