Geist oder Gesellschaft. Über die Konstruktion sozialer Akteure in der Literaturwissenschaft in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts

Author(s):  
Holger Dainat

Abstract In the first decades of the 20th century, literary studies in the history of ideas (Geistesgeschichte) experimented with sociological and socio-historical perspectives and concepts in search of a stable basis. In doing so, it reacts to the problems of historical-philological research that focuses on social aspects of literary change. In the competition for the sovereignty of interpretation, holistic(national, ethnic) concepts also prevail against empirical findings.

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
Ewelina Drzewiecka

The paper is devoted to the author’s concept of modern apocrypha in the context of the two main tendencies of (Post)modernity: unmasking and paraphrasing. On the basis of the literary paraphrases of the Evangelical story, found in the Bulgarian (Post)Modern literary, there is shown a hermeneutic passage from “apocrypha as a literary mystification” (“literary apocrypha”), i.e. a concept often applied in literary studies, to “apocrypha as an epiphany of sense”, i.e. a concept which can be useful in cultural studies and in history of ideas. It is suggested that in the light of the postsecular thought, being an individual interpretation of the canon, the (Post)Modern apocrypha has a great epiphanic potential, which means that hiding minority truths, it reveals in fact some crucial, and crypto-theological, problems of the present. Drawing the axiological difference between “the unmasking apocrypha” (pseudo-gospel) and “the paraphrasing apocrypha” (epiphany of sense), the author claims that only the last one does actually incarnate Charles Taylor’s ideal of the authentic (and poetic) expression (of will), which helps in establishing an individual sense-making horizon as a positive response to the “heretical imperative” of (Post)Modernity.


1952 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-267
Author(s):  
M. M. Starkey

Author(s):  
James McElvenny

This chapter sets the scene for the case studies that follow in the rest of the book by characterising the ‘age of modernism’ and identifying problems relating to language and meaning that arose in this context. Emphasis is laid on the social and political issues that dominated the era, in particular the rapid developments in technology, which inspired both hope and fear, and the international political tensions that led to the two World Wars. The chapter also sketches the approach to historiography taken in the book, interdisciplinary history of ideas.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (XXII) ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Benon Gaziński ◽  
Maria Swianiewicz-Nagięć

In his article, authors deals with Stanisław Swianiewicz heritage. They point-out that it cannot be reduced to the famous episode of the Katyń massacre while he avoided death being sent to the Gwiezdowo station in the neighbourhood of the mass graves – the only one such a case. While settled in Vilnius, after the Bolshevik’s revolution, he became a Professor of the Stefan Batory University, dealing with the Soviet studies, history of ideas and economic thought. In the article – very little known – journalistic essays are overviewed as published by Swianiewicz in pre-war Vilnius press and dealing with the issue of the national and religious minorities of the Polish Eastern Borderlands.


2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-204
Author(s):  
Lance Kenney

Louis Menand’s The Metaphysical Club, daunting in its choice of subject matter, closely aligns itself with the ancient sense of the word ‘history’ as a fluid, almost epic narrative. The Metaphysical Club of the title was a conversation group that met in Cambridge for a few months in 1872. Its membership roster listed some of the greatest intellectuals of the day: Charles Peirce, William James, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Chauncey Wright, amongst others. There is no record of the Club’s discussions or debates—in fact, the only direct reference to the Club is made by Peirce in a letter written thirty-five years later. Menand utilizes the Club as a jumping-off point for a sweeping analysis of the beliefs of the day. The subtitle of the book belies its true mission: ‘a story of ideas in America.’ Menand discusses the intellectual and social conditions that helped shape these men by the time they were members of the Club. He then shows the philosophical, political, and cultural impact that these men went on to have. In doing so, Menand traces a history of ideas in the United States from immediately prior to the Civil War to the beginning of the Cold War.


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