Contesting Nietzsche’s Agon. On Christa Davis Acampora’s Contesting Nietzsche

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman Siemens

AbstractThis paper engages in a critical discussion with Christa Davis Acampora concerning Nietzsche’s concept of the agon. It takes issue with the “meaning-making” model of the agon developed in her book Contesting Nietzsche, the typology for distinguishing productive agonal confl ict from destructive confl ict, and its application to the Apollinian-Dionysian relation in GT and to Nietzsche’s critique of Socrates. Acampora’s model, it is argued, modernises and soft ens Nietzsche’s agon by taking out the moment of negation, disempowerment, or critical opposition that belongs together with reciprocal affi rmation or stimulation in agonal interaction.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Wiesner

With a conscious attempt to contribute to contemporary discussions in mad/trans/queer/monster studies, the monograph approaches complex postmodern theories and contextualizes them from an autoethnographic methodological perspective. As the self-explanatory subtitle reads, the book introduces several topics as revelatory fields for the author’s self-exploration at the moment of an intense epistemological and ontological crisis. Reflexively written, it does not solely focus on a personal experience, as it also aims at bridging the gap between the individual and the collective in times of global uncertainty. There are no solid outcomes defined; nevertheless, the narrative points to a certain—more fluid—way out. Through introducing alternative ways of hermeneutics and meaning-making, the book offers a synthesis of postmodern philosophy and therapy, evolutionary astrology as a symbolic language, embodied inquiry, and Buddhist thought that together represent a critical attempt to challenge the pathologizing discursive practices of modern disciplines during the neoliberal capitalist era.


Author(s):  
Nicholas McDowell

This chapter discusses the influence of François Rabelais in English literary culture. It looks at this impact on earlier English prose narrative and fiction of Rabelais' loosely related tales of gluttonous, bibulous giants and their fantastic adventures, collectively known as Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–64). ‘Rabelaisian’ is of course an adjective which in both criticism and common linguistic currency has become detached from its literary and authorial origins to become an alternative term for the ‘bawdy’, the ‘vulgar’, and the ‘earthily humorous’. The chapter shows the process beginning from the moment the term is coined to describe an author's character rather than appraise their literary style, evoking a sensibility healthily drawn to festivity and indulgence but also somewhat at odds with Christian decency. The generality of the term has doubtless contributed to the vagueness of much critical discussion.


Digithum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soile Veijola ◽  
Emily Höckert ◽  
David Carlin ◽  
Ann Light ◽  
Janne Säynäjäkangas

In this paper, five authors account for the rethinking of a conference as a series of postcards, letters, rules and silent moments so that traditional hierarchies of knowledge could be overturned or, at least, sidelined. We recount how the place we convened was enlisted as an actor and the dramas and devices we applied to encounter it. We use this accounting to problematize the conventional practices of goal-oriented meetings and co-authored papers as forms of academic meaning-making. In finding a meeting point where expertise was disorientated and status undressed, we were able to investigate the idea of co-being between human and nonhuman realities as the step social theory needs to take to become a point of connection with the social world, instead of an escape from it. We conclude that this involved silence and necessary fictions as a means to consider the future and past in the moment of meeting.


Author(s):  
Amy Mazowita

Note: this commentary is intended for the special issue, "Comics in and of The Moment." Abstract: This essay discusses the ways in which print and web comics are used to represent the lived experiences of mental illness. Beginning with a brief overview of mental health-focused comic strips and graphic memoirs and turning to a discussion of the mental illness comics of Instagram, the article outlines how comics are being used as platforms for self- and collective care. Instead of prioritizing a visual/discourse analysis of each web comic, this piece focuses on the comment threads of each Instagram post and examines the conversations which develop amongst users. By doing so, this essay begins a critical discussion of the ways in which comics may be used as mental health resources. While grounded in a discussion of Covid-19-related increases to mental illness symptoms, this piece is also interested in how comics may be used as therapeutic supports in a post-pandemic world.


Author(s):  
Brian Schiff

Chapter 3 of A New Narrative for Psychology introduces a theoretical framework for a narrative perspective that inspires creative approaches to studying psychological problems. It begins with a history of the “narrative turn” in psychology and outlines the current divisions. Since the 1980s, psychological research calling itself “narrative” has blossomed. However, at the moment, narrative psychology is fragmented, with no clear definition of what narrative is or does. This chapter addresses the definitional problems posed by the current use of the narrative concept in psychology, arguing that narrative psychology is not just a theory or a method but, rather, must encompass both. It reorients narrative psychology to meaning making, the study of how and why persons enact aspects of their lives in time and space. Narrative offers researchers insight into the fundamental psychological problems of how persons interpret the self and experience.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 669-685
Author(s):  
William Anderson

PurposeWhat gets measured gets done” goes the cliché. Therefore, it is imperative for corporate communicators to understand the measurement of persuasive communication, starting with its antecedents. This paper will highlight the link between audience awareness/behavior and persuasive communication through an examination of how 1920s practitioners studied the effect their communications materials (specifically film and print brochures) had on key audiences.Design/methodology/approachThe author used the cultural-economic model (CEM) of public relations (PR) as a framework to examine the various socio-cultural organizational factors that affected the production and the consumption of communication materials and messages.FindingsThe intent and techniques of PR measurement have not changed much in 100 years. A contemporary practitioner might conduct a study of communications materials in a similar manner as the 1920s social hygienists, and this study adds the concept of human agency to the discussion of PR measurement. This is not to engage in historical presentism and judge past practitioners on current standards. Instead, it is a call for contemporary practitioners to take a deeper look at the moment of consumption and all the variables that go into meaning making.Originality/valueMost of the field's historical case studies focus on the production of communication messages and materials, while this paper examines those facets as well as audience consumption. Implications for contemporary practitioners are discussed.


Author(s):  
Matthew Handelman

Chapter 2 investigates the moment in 1917 when the philosophy of mathematics revealed to Gershom Scholem the symbolic potential of privation. Mathematics—in particular, the translation of logic into the symbols and operations of mathematics known as mathematical logic—produced novel results by discarding the conventional representational and meaning-making functions of language. Drawing on these mathematical insights, Scholem’s theorization of the poetic genre of lament and his translations of the biblical book of Lamentations employed erasure on the level of literary form to symbolize experiences, such as the Jewish diaspora, that exceed the limits of linguistic and historical representation. For Scholem, both poetry and history can mobilize deprivation as a means of retaining in language a symbol of experiences and ideas that remain unsayable in language and inexpressible in history—accounting for the erasure of exile and finding historical continuity in moments of silence, rupture, and catastrophe.


1999 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-300
Author(s):  
Barbara Green

AbstractDiverse South African readings of "the exodus" offer convenient access to the complex processes of "meaning-making" which are currently under scrutiny in many disciplines. This essay investigates several diverse appropriations of the biblical text in order to read the classic journey story-particularly the moment of encountering the Canaanites-and to sort some of the methodological issues. First, a pair of opposite versions: white South African (Boer) and black South African (represented by Archbishop Desmond Tutu); second, a triad of critical approaches, but with different emphases (historical-critical, text-centered, reader-focused); and third, my own construal of Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, as yet another appropriation of liberation texts. In each case, the valuable questions to ask are how the interpreter has proceded and what has been the result, both for the understanding of texts and for the methodological discussion. The allegorical approach (Boer and Tutu) seems totally inadequate. The scholarly critical readings, with their behind-, within-, and before-the-text emphases are illuminating. But Mandela's construal, or at least my version of it, offers additional and fresh insight into the dynamics of liberation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis S. Davis ◽  
Dot McElhone ◽  
F. Blake Tenore

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptualization of reading comprehension that extends beyond the traditional cognitive viewpoint on comprehension common in the field. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on literature and theory from various perspectives (cognitive, sociocultural and critical), the authors propose a conceptual heuristic that can inform future scholarship. Findings – Using four foundational principles of reader–text interactions as a starting point (non-neutrality, tethered polysemy, variable agency and unruliness), the authors describe reader–text interactions in terms of the tethers/resources that are brought into the interaction, the moment-to-moment improvisation that occurs when readers meet a text and the changes at the intra- and interpersonal levels that result from and influence future reader–text interactions. Originality/value – The conceptualization can inform future research and practice in literacy by situating meaning making within a broader understanding of the processes and consequences of textual interaction.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-132
Author(s):  
M.V. Yermolayeva ◽  
D.V. Lubovsky

The article analyzes the functions and structure of psychological catharsis as a cultural means of meaning-making. Basing on eudemonistic understanding of catharsis, the authors show its meaning-making action. In the structure of catharsis, there are phases of excitement (pathos), concentration (‘merging’ with the main character), and transcendence (‘reaching beyond one’s limitations’) which, through personal reflection, concludes with the individual’s ‘return to oneself’, transformed through the encounter with the work of art. The authors consider catharsis as an event that encourages action and creates the space of opportunities for it; basing on the research of art historians, the authors describe two kinds of catharsis (in the perception of Caravaggio’s and Rembrandt’s works). The authors identify psychotechnical means of interrupting catharsis at the moment of emotional extremum (in the works of Caravaggio) and the conditions for completing the reflective catharsis with the ‘return to one’s transformed self’ (using the paintings of Rembrandt as an example). The paper concludes with an outline of further prospects of exploring catharsis as a cultural means of meaning-making.


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