Masterly Maxims

PMLA ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-497
Author(s):  
Mieke Bal
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Deep Knowledge ◽  
Philosophical Background ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Unlike most others teaching (English) literature, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is intimately knowledgeable about philosophy, especially German. Her deep knowledge of Kant, Marx, and Gramsci is a red thread running through her many books. And, given her interest in what we call less and less happily “postcolonial” theory (the hesitation coming from an awareness of the problematic meaning of the prefix post-), her discussions of such canonical and inexhaustible philosophical texts never lose sight of the sociopolitical implications of the ideas gleaned from the encounter. Thus, she brings a philosophical tradition to bear on contemporary social issues of a keen actuality. This solid philosophical background does not make her texts always easy to read for literary and other cultural scholars eager to get ideas—preferably quickly—about “how to do” postcolonial literary studies. Spivak's work is as challenging to read, understand, and absorb as it is important in content.

Native Books and the “English Book”

PMLA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 132 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moradewun Adejunmobi
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
African Literature ◽  
First Century ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Large Individual ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Those of us working in the american academy have so internalized the grammar of postcolonial theory that we now take for granted interstices, hybridity, slippage, and liminality, among other terms commonplace in the discourse of postcolonialism. Beyond the terms themselves, we have taken to heart, absorbed, and extended the lessons from Homi K. Bhabha's The Location of Culture. Those lessons furnished a stimulative template for analyzing particular power asymmetries. Nevertheless, scholars have not referred as widely as we might expect to Bhabha's work in general and The Location of Culture in particular, especially in some fields for which postcolonial theory was supposed to be a natural fit, such as African literary studies. The index of African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, a 764-page compendium assembling many of the most important interventions in African literature from the 1970s to the early twenty-first century, is an instructive example: it lists only three entries for Bhabha (Olaniyan and Quayson). Given that postcolonial theory and African literary studies share an interest and a language (the aftermath of British colonialism and English) in their research agendas, we might also ponder the frequency with which postcolonial theory in the vein of Bhabha, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Edward Said has elicited critique from scholars working with African literary texts and in African studies writ large. Individual persuasion is at work in these critiques but so also undoubtedly are positionality and location. We should read the critiques, then, not for their universal resonance, but for an understanding of debates unfolding in specific locations around the world, as well as in relation to the subject positions of individual scholars and their ideological proclivities.

English literary Studies

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Md. Mahmudul Hasan
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Muslim Students ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
The Subject

Proponents of the integration of Islam into English literary studiesseek, by way of presenting Islamic worldviews in relation to thelife-worlds that English texts presumably promote, to inform (Muslim)students and practitioners of the subject about possible untowardinfluences in order to help them withstand cultural captivityand lifestyle effects. This is part of the wider concept of integratingIslam into human knowledge, which functions across a broad rangeof subject areas and generally refers to a method of looking at academicdisciplines from Islamic perspectives and enlightening thereader about relevant Islamic teachings. Based on this theoreticalpremise, in this article I focus on the need for and three importantways of teaching English literature: inculcating Islamic/moral values,identifying predominant themes and ideas inherent in literarytexts and looking at them from Islamic perspectives, and reformingthe curriculum.

The Problem of the Formation of Philosophical Prose in Persian

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 126-137
Author(s):  
Tatyana G. Korneeva
Keyword(s):  
Arabic Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
Language Of Science ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
Arab Muslim ◽  
History Of ◽  
Philosophical Texts

The article discusses the problem of the formation of philosophical prose in the Persian language. The first section presents a brief excursion into the history of philosophical prose in Persian and the stages of formation of modern Persian as a language of science and philosophy. In the Arab-Muslim philosophical tradition, representatives of various schools and trends contributed to the development of philosophical terminology in Farsi. The author dwells on the works of such philosophers as Ibn Sīnā, Nāṣir Khusraw, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Aḥmad al-Ghazālī, ʼAbū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and gives an overview of their works written in Persian. The second section poses the question whether the Persian language proved able to compete with the Arabic language in the field of science. The author examines the style of philosophical prose in Farsi, considering the causes of creation of Persian-language philosophical texts and defining their target audience. The article presents viewpoints of modern orientalist researchers as well as the views of medieval philosophers who wrote in Persian. We find that most philosophical texts in Persian were written for a public who had little or no knowledge of the Arabic language, yet wanted to get acquainted with current philosophical and religious doctrines, albeit in an abbreviated format. The conclusion summarizes and presents two positions regarding the necessity of writing philosophical prose in Persian. According to one point of view, Persian-language philosophical works helped people who did not speak Arabic to get acquainted with the concepts and views of contemporary philosophy. According to an alternative view, there was no special need to compose philosophical texts in Persian, because the corpus of Arabic philosophical terminology had already been formed, and these Arabic terms were widely and successfully used, while the new Persian philosophical vocabulary was difficult to understand.

The Islamization of English Literary Studies

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-41
Author(s):  
Md. Mahmudul Hasan
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Islamic Perspective

In today’s world where the former colonized are reshaping their relation with the colonizer, the concept of decolonizing or indigenizing education is widely discussed in postcolonial studies. Decolonizing/indigenizing education counters the western systems of knowledge’s hegemony over those of non-western systems of thought and requires the development of a new approach to education that keeps in view the indigenous societies’ socio-cultural and religious values and traditions. The Islamization of Knowledge undertaking maintains a similar approach, but additionally requires an Islamic perspective on knowledge. Among all western disciplines, English literature is arguably the most culturally charged and carries western value-laden ideas. This reality points to the need to look at it from Islamic perspectives. Based on this theoretical concept, this study seeks to establish the urgency and feasibility of Islamizing English (British) literary studies.

scholarly journals The Philosophical Framework of Le Corbusier's Education: Schuré and German Idealism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Rabaça
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Le Corbusier ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Subsequent Period ◽  
Philosophical Background ◽  
Philosophical Framework ◽  
Changing Attitudes ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
Religion And Art

Abstract: This paper seeks to demonstrate that Le Corbusier's autodidactic agenda between 1908 and 1911 reflects a consistent philosophical reasoning based on the philosophical tradition of German idealism. The vehicle of analysis is the connection between Édouard Schuré's 'Sanctuaires d'Orient', a book Le Corbusier read in 1908, and three key episodes of the subsequent period of travel. Schuré's book provides us with the philosophical framework to which he was exposed. The three episodes, in turn, are taken as case studies in order to demonstrate the correlation between the philosophical background of the book and Le Corbusier's changing attitudes during this period. The terms of this correlation are based on an evolutionary conception of history and can be synthesized as the belief in cultural progress, leading to a new society built upon the unity of science, religion and art, in a secular-sacred life attained through the recovery of a pantheistic existence, and in art and architecture as a means to an epistemological experience. I will lastly argue that this creates the basis for the lifelong influence of idealism in Le Corbusier's work and thought. Keywords: Le Corbusier's Education; Schuré; German Idealism; Romanticism. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/LC2015.2015.671

scholarly journals In defense of biblical literacy in English and American literary studies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Timothy Love
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Biblical Literacy ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Current State ◽  
Academic Consequences ◽  
Biblical Education

This study seeks to address a nationwide lack of concern for biblical education in English literary studies. More specifically, it evaluates and offers potential remedies for the current state of biblical illiteracy within the academy. By showing the academic consequences of textual misinterpretation that derive from biblical illiteracy, this essay hopes to educationally and pedagogically promote the adherence of biblical scholarship in English literature. Through biblical explications of select representational texts, this also study intends to effectively contribute to efforts that value foundational biblical education in secular literary academia.

scholarly journals Effect of Teaching English Literature on EFL Learners' Output

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelraziq A bdelghani Mahil Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Empirical Method ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Academic Year

This study aimed at investigating the effect of teaching English Literature on the EFL Learners' output. This study adopted a quasi-empirical method. The sample of the study consisted of (100) English teachers. The population of the study was all English teachers in Khartoum locality in the first period in the academic year 2017 / 2018. A questionnaire was constructed to the teachers to collect data. The study used the SPSS program to analyze the data. The results revealed statistically significant differences in students 'output because the study participants strongly agreed to (14) items in the questionnaire, which their  average ranged from (4.20 to 5.00) and that means that teaching English Literature is essential and necessary for EFL Learners because its effects on their output in English language. In the light of the study findings the researcher recommended that Curricula designers, educators, and experts should adopt literature-based syllabuses or include at least literature in the syllabuses.

John Edgar Stevens 1921–2002

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Page
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Musical History ◽  
The University

John Stevens had a benign and constructive presence among British musical and literary scholars for several generations, beginning in the late 1940s when he was made a Bye-Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and extending virtually to the day of his demise on 14 February 2002. His eminence as a musicologist and the exalted reputation he left behind amongst his musicological colleagues seem all the more remarkable when one considers that he passed his life as a university teacher of English literature. From 1954 until 1974 Stevens was University Lecturer in English in the University of Cambridge, then Reader in English and Musical History from 1974–8. In 1978 he was appointed Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English in the University. Despite Stevens' profound and sympathetic musicianship, it was the critical traditions of English literary studies that shaped his intellectual temper.

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