scholarly journals Postcolonial Identity Crisis in the Mimic Men a Novel by V.S.Naipaul

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (03) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saman Abdulqadir Hussein Dizayi
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Identity Crisis ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Postcolonial Identity ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
Core Issue

This paper investigates the concepts of Identity and estrangement in the postcolonial novel entitled The Mimic Men by V.S. Naipaul. In Naipaul’s The Mimic Men, Ralph Singh has showed different aspects that reflects his nature of a “prototypical colonial character” who is quite commonly estranged with the biased and pluralistic society he has inhaled most of his breaths in it. For Ralph, identity is a core issue that is depicted by his mimicry of European or Western views on different aspects of life. Also, Ralph’s self identification is in strong conflict with that of the Western world. For following the footsteps of colonialists, he has abandoned his home, family and even his self-identity only for the sake of mimicking the West. He has married an Englishwoman and has gone through formal education in the West. The alienation of his identity has resulted in the scattering of his personal being thereby leading towards vulnerability and corruption of his inner self.

US and Russian policies and strategies in the Middle East: Iraq and Syria as a model

2019 ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
Esraa Aladdin Noori ◽  
Nasser Zain AlAbidine Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Western World ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
East Region ◽  
Middle East Region

The Russian-American relations have undergone many stages of conflict and competition over cooperation that have left their mark on the international balance of power in the Middle East. The Iraqi and Syrian crises are a detailed development in the Middle East region. The Middle East region has allowed some regional and international conflicts to intensify, with the expansion of the geopolitical circle, which, if applied strategically to the Middle East region, covers the area between Afghanistan and East Asia, From the north to the Maghreb to the west and to the Sudan and the Greater Sahara to the south, its strategic importance will seem clear. It is the main lifeline of the Western world.

Last Jewish Writings, 1915–1918

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick C. Beiser
Keyword(s):  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Rational Form ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Special Obligation ◽  
Moral Content ◽  
The Many ◽  
At Home

The Jewish writings of these final years develop themes of the earlier years. Cohen continues to explore one of his favorite topics: the affinity of German and Jewish character. Despite his cosmopolitan conception of Judaism, Cohen still thought that the Jews were most at home in Germany. Yet, despite his belief in the special affinity between Germans and Jews, Cohen still shows his cosmopolitanism by his sympathy for the Ostjuden; he maintains that they should be freed from the many immigration controls imposed on them. Cohen continues to worry about the growing weakening of Jewish communities in Germany, and argues, as Socrates did in the Crito, that people have a special obligation to stay within the communities which nurtured them. In a remarkable 1916 lecture on Plato and the prophets Cohen argues that they are the two major ethical voices in the Western world: Plato gave the West a rational form while the prophets gave it moral content. Cohen now reduces his earlier striving for a unity of religions down to the demand for a unity of conscience.

The Neoliberal Yogi and the Politics of Yoga

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 772-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farah Godrej
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Western World ◽  
Yoga Practice ◽  
The West ◽  
Modern Yoga ◽  
Political Norms

Can the theory and practice of the yogic tradition serve as a challenge to dominant cultural and political norms in the Western world? In this essay I demonstrate that modern yoga is a creature of fabrication, while arguing that yogic norms can simultaneously reinforce and challenge the norms of contemporary Western neoliberal societies. In its current and most common iteration in the West, yoga practice does stand in danger of reinforcing neoliberal constructions of selfhood. However, yoga does contain ample resources for challenging neoliberal subjectivity, but this requires reading the yogic tradition in a particular way, to emphasize certain philosophical elements over others, while directing its practice toward an inward-oriented detachment from material outcomes and desires. Contemporary claims about yoga’s counterhegemonic status often rely on exaggerated notions of its former “purity” and “authenticity,” which belie its invented and retrospectively reconstructed nature. Rather than engaging in these debates about authenticity, scholars and practitioners may productively turn their energies toward enacting a resistant, anti-neoliberal practice of yoga, while remaining self-conscious about the particularity and partiality of the interpretive position on which such a practice is founded.

Sikhism, Traumatic Repetition, and the Question of Aesthetic Sovereignty

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Nijhawan
Keyword(s):  
Vantage Point ◽  
New Work ◽  
Subject Formation ◽  
The West ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Postcolonial Identity

AbstractThis article provides a detailed discussion of Arvind Mandair’s new work Religion and the Specter of the West. Written from a sociological vantage point, which is informed by a long commitment to Sikh Studies, the argument presented here focuses on three organizing concepts of Mandair’s work: (1) repetition and how it is to be read within the process of subject formation, (2) trauma as a conceptual tool to rethink postcolonial identity, and (3) aesthetic sovereignty as providing a possible exit out of hermeneutic dilemmas of ‘translating religion.’

Western Countries: Future of Multiculturalism in Context of Employment

2012 ◽  
pp. 16-25
Author(s):  
M. Klupt
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Statistical Information ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
The World

Will immigrant minorities change the Western world? Two decades ago this question seemed irrelevant as it was expected that the West will change the world in its image. Today, the same question is perceived as rhetorical. The answer is obvious, and the dispute is merely over directions, extent and possible consequences of future changes. The center of this dispute is the multiculturalism – the concept, policy and praxis praising diversity of cultures and denying any of them a vested right to dominate not only in the world at large, but even in a particular country. The assessment of its perspectives presupposes a variety of research approaches in view of its complexity. In the present article only one of them is be used for the analysis focused on the employment of immigrant minorities from the world's South. The viability of such approach is based on two circumstances. Firstly, the employment indexes considered in ethnical context belong to the most important characteristics of ethno-social structure of a society. Secondly, the availability of broad statistical information about employment allows for resting upon empirical data, possibly avoiding a needless bias toward purely theoretical constructions.

How Well Does R2P Travel Beyond the West?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faith Mabera ◽  
Yolanda Spies
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Domain State ◽  
The Status ◽  
Emerging Powers

R2P invokes the power-morality nexus in international relations and interrogates the rules of engagement that anchor international society. Conceptualization of R2P as a liberal Western construct can therefore be divisive, especially when operationalization of the norm—as happened during the 2011 intervention in Libya—feeds into a West-against-the-Rest narrative. This is unfortunate because the R2P doctrine has deep roots in the non-Western world—Africa in particular—and Global South perspectives continue to strengthen its conceptual development. Emerging powers challenge the status quo of structural power and their rhetoric on R2P often invokes mistrust of Western altruism in international politics. Their actions, on the other hand, prove that they are no less prone to realpolitik in the normative domain. State actors in the normative middle of international politics, including developed as well as developing countries, are well placed to bridge the West-versus-the-Rest schism and to provide leadership in the R2P discourse.

scholarly journals Beyond the “Conflict” Paradigm

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-101
Author(s):  
Aziz Douai
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Culture Media ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western World ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
The West ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Power Game ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Zero Sum

Western-Muslim relations have experienced long periods of peaceful coexistence,fruitful co-operation, and close interactions that have enriched both civilizations.And yet an alien observer of our mainstream media could be forgivenfor concluding that “Islam” and the “West” can never co-exist in peace becausethey seem to have nothing in common. In fact, the intermittent violence interruptingthese long peaceful interactions – from the Crusades to the “War onTerror” – has constituted the core of most mainstream media coverage and“scholarship” purporting to “study” and “explain” these relations.In a zero-sum power game, these dominant frameworks emphasize thatsuch a “clash” is inevitable. Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations”theory has become the best known articulation and deployment of “conflict”as an “explanatory” framework for understanding current and past Muslim-West interactions. Simply put, existential, cultural, and religious chasmshave put the Muslim world on a collision course with the western world, aproblem that is most exacerbated by the presence of “Islam” and Muslimcommunities in western societies (Huntington, 1993).1 His thesis appearsto ignore each civilization’s internal diversity and pluralism and to be willfullyoblivious to the inter- and intra-civilizational interactions and centuriesoldco-existence, as Edward Said argued in his rebuttal: “Clash of Ignorance”(2001).  Beyond the broadest generalizations, after all, what do “Islam” and the“West” mean? How long can we afford to “ignore” the “porousness” and “ambiguity”of their geographical and cultural borders? Is “conflict” between thesetwo realms inevitable? How about the centuries-old dialogue between thesecivilizations, the “Self” and the “Other”? How can researchers and intellectualsdeploy their inter-disciplinary insights and scholarship to address both thereal and the perceived civilizational “chasms”?These questions constitute the overarching themes of some very importantscholarship published in three recent books: Engaging the Other: Public Policyand Western-Muslim Intersections, edited by Karim H. Karim and MahmoudEid; Re-Imagining the Other: Culture, Media, and Western-Muslim Intersections,edited by Mahmoud Eid and Karim H. Karim; and the Routledge Handbookof Islam in the West, edited by Roberto Tottoli. With rich methodologicalapproaches, broad theoretical lenses, and diverse topics, these three books offera unique platform to build both a holistic and nuanced understanding of thecontingencies and intricacies surrounding “Islam” and the “West.” ...

scholarly journals The Sheath Warrior Returns: Identity and Ideology of the Nation

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustinus Rustanta ◽  
Evvy Silalahi
Keyword(s):  
Vice President ◽  
Charles Sanders Peirce ◽  
Verbal Communication ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Deep Meaning ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Election Commission

This research focuses on non-verbal communication of sarong worn by Ma’ruf Amin as the candidate of Vice President of Republic Indonesia for the period of 2019-2024 who had been declared by the public election commission (KPU) on Junie 28, 2019. To analyze the meaning of sarong, the researchers use semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce. The findings indicate that sarong denotatively means a piece of cloth which is sewn at its end to become a kind of tube to cover part of man’s body especially his stomach and below. Furthermore, sarong has very deep meaning, they are showing self-identity, local culture, the symbol of resistance to the culture of the west, it shows sincerity, complex way of thinking, flexibility, elegance, smart thinking, and excellent morality.

scholarly journals Proust et l'autofiction : vers un montage des identités

1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Carrier-Lafleur
Keyword(s):  
Identity Crisis ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Original Device

À la recherche du temps perdu est l’histoire d’une crise identitaire, celle d’un sujet qui souhaite écrire, mais n’y arrive pas. Au Temps retrouvé, c’est la révélation finale : le narrateur a enfin compris certaines lois, qu’il devra observer et traduire avec son « télescope », c’est-à-dire avec son œuvre d’art entendue comme instrument ou comme machine. Ainsi, le personnage proustien est contraint à créer un dispositif original pour parler de soi, une nouvelle herméneutique du sujet, ce qui fait de la Recherche la première vraie autofiction avant la lettre. L’autofiction proustienne, par son travail sur notre « moi profond », combat la crise identitaire et le nihilisme pour proposer un nouveau montage des identités.AbstractRemembrance of things past is the story of an identity crisis, that of a subject who wishes to write, but does not succeed. With Time regained, it is the final revelation: the narrator finally understood certain laws, that he will have to observe and translate with his “telescope”, that is with his work of art, taken as an instrument or a machine. Thus, the proustian character is forced to create an original device to tell about oneself, a new hermeneutics of the subject, which makes Remembranceof things past the first true autofiction, before its time. The proustian autofiction, by its work on our “inner self”, fights identity crisis and nihilism to propose a new editing of the identities.

scholarly journals The Russian Federation and Reshaping a Post-Cold War Order

Politeja ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5(62)) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Bryc
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Crimean Peninsula ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
International Standing ◽  
Munich Security Conference

Russia attempts to revise a Western-led liberal world order. However, challenging the West seems to be a strategy aimed at improving Russia’s international standing. This strategy is undoubtedly ambiguous as Russia challenges the West, particularity the United States, and looks for a rapprochement at the same time.The Russian Federation abandoned the West in 2014 as a result of the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula what constituted breaking international law, andengagement into the war in the East Ukraine. Nevertheless, the milestone was not 2014, but 2008 when Russia had decided for the first time to use its militar yforce against Georgia and indirectly against the growing Western military and political presence in this post-Soviet republic. This game changer was hardly a surprise, because several signals of a desire to challenge the Western-led world order had appeared in the past at least twice in president Putin’s speeches in 2007 at Munich Security Conference and in 2014 during Valdai Club session in Sochi. This article seeks to provide a take in the discussion about the way Russia has been trying to reshape the post-Cold War order. This paper probes the notion that Russia has become a revisionist state trying to shape a post-Western world order. Besides, there are a few questions to be answered, first of all whether anti-Westernism is in fact its goal or rather an instrument in regaining more effective impact on international politics and how it may influence the post-ColdWar order despite its reduced political and economic potential.

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