Struggle for recognition: theosophy in early 20th century Warsaw

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Karolina Hess ◽  
Andrzej Kasperek
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Status ◽  
Struggle For Recognition

The present study focuses on the activities of the first Polish Theosophical group, which for many reasons was never fully institutionally recognized. It was active from around 1905 and concentrated around Kazimierz Stabrowski (1869–1929), a Polish painter and the head of the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. The aim of this paper is to sociologically analyze this esoteric environment in Warsaw, which is treated here as an example of a cultic milieu from the perspective of visibility and recognition. Referring to the category of rejected knowledge (anomalies or the “cultural rubbish bin”) and using the case of Stabrowski and other members of the group, the authors highlight their efforts in the struggle for the recognition of their ideas in various environments and trace the process of their exclusion. Further, they examine the status of the Theosophical current in the public discourse of the time, which was undoubtedly related to the scope of Theosophy itself, which largely focused on the liminal aspects of humanity and cognition.

An historical space in a new context: The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts Research Library as a part of the future House of Text

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Igoshina
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Research Library ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Apartment House ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Museum ◽  
The Future ◽  
Museum Of Fine Arts

In 2021 the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts Research Library will move from its historical setting into a new building as part of a new House of Text. This House of Text is faced with the challenge of adapting a former early 20th-century apartment house (never before used as a museum or a library) to the needs of an institution that collects and conserves books on fine art and makes them accessible to the public in multiple ways.

Enchantingly Modern: Whispers of the Occult in Popular Psychic Healing Practices of Early 20th-century Bengal

2020 ◽  
pp. 0972558X2097564
Author(s):  
Runa Das Chaudhuri
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
The One

Early 20th-century Bengal witnessed the budding of a constituency of spiritually inclined psychic healers who provided miraculous treatment to ailing patients through practices widely referred to as sammohan. Practicing healers seemed to recklessly borrow from Western healing therapies of mesmerism and hypnotism, on the one hand, and simultaneously appear, on the other, to vigorously harp, albeit covertly on the mystical kernel of indigenous occult tantric knowledge. This, I argue, had the marks of an unsure modernity, which produced its own enchantment ironically in the public discourse by retaining the mystical essence of occultism under the shell of popular healing. This article explores whether practices of sammohan placed between the medically sober and the erotically intoxicated provide a way to unravel the complexities of the “Bengali modern.” It also investigates whether the occult turn of psychic healing constituted an enormous, complex, and internally complicated phenomenon yet posited simultaneously a coherent response to the dilemmas of modernity.

scholarly journals Representations of the Ideas of Anti-Colonialism of the Autochthonous Intelligentsia of the Steppe Region in the Public Discourse of the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3 (27)) ◽  
pp. 22-28
Author(s):  
Mikhail K. Churkin
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Professional Community ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Administrative Control ◽  
Sociocultural Background

The article reconstructed the model of anti-colonial representations of the Kazakh intelligentsia in the socio-political discourse of the second half of the 19th - early 20th century. In the course of the study, the factors of the formation and institutionalization of the intelligentsia of the indigenous peoples were identified, the sociocultural conditions and their influence on the ideology of anticolonialism were illustrated, the main channels for expressing anticolonial ideas and views were revealed. It was established that the formation of the anticolonial segment of the socio-political discourse of colonization took place under the conditions of a complex sociocultural background of intensification of migration movements and the integration of the region into the system of national administrative control. The role of Russian educational and cultural institutions, as well as the importance of national traditions in the formation of the Kazakh intelligentsia as a national professional community, is revealed.

scholarly journals Bella Abzug, queer rights, and disrupting the status quo

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor G Gates ◽  
Margery C Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Field Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Status

Workers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-identified have always been a part of the workplace in the United States, yet there has been a lack of awareness about how to advocate for the needs of these people. This lack of awareness was challenged by Congresswoman Bella Abzug. Abzug’s campaign for creating an equal working environment for sexual minorities initiated gradual changes in the public discourse concerning workplace and other broad equality measures for these communities. To frame these gradual transformations within a historical context, we use Lewin’s force field analysis framework to examine the change efforts of Abzug. Abzug had beginning success in thawing the status quo yet her visions for equality for LGBTQ people have yet to be realized. Using Abzug’s social action as an example, this article concludes that allies must continue to challenge societal oppression, power, and privilege and to demand civil rights protections for LGBTQ individuals.

scholarly journals State Supervision of the Periodicals Distribution System in Russia in the Early 20th Century

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-22
Author(s):  
Е.Н. Крылова
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Distribution System ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Train Station ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Supervision ◽  
History Of ◽  
Newspaper Distribution ◽  
The Government ◽  
History Of Journalism

В статье затронут малоизученный аспект государственного контроля за системой распространения периодических изданий в России на примере столичных городов в начале ХХ века. Цель исследования — выявить основные каналы распространения столичных газет в начале ХХ века и определить механизмы государственного контроля за системой дистрибуции периодической печати. На основе имеющихся архивных источников автор приходит к выводу, что основными каналами распространения столичной прессы были подписка, розничная продажа в разнос и в магазинах и на железных дорогах. К началу Первой мировой войны система дистрибуции периодических изданий постепенно менялась. Нормативные акты, принятые в конце XIX века, уже не позволяли эффективно контролировать распространение информации, а правительственные меры предпринимались запоздало или были незначительны. Существовавшая система государственного контроля за системой дистрибуции не могла оперативно реагировать на кризис, что способствовало распространению нежелательной для правительства информации среди населения, в том числе запрещенной литературы. Полученные результаты могут быть использованы в первую очередь при подготовке общих курсов по истории России, чтении курсов лекций и спецкурсов по истории журналистики. The article treats some under-investigated issues associated with the state supervision of the periodicals circulation and distribution system in Russia in the early 20th century. The aim of the research is to study the main channels of capital newspapers circulation and distribution in the early 20th century and to identify the mechanisms of state supervision of the periodicals distribution system. The analysis of archival materials enables the author to conclude that capital newspapers were distributed via subscription, retailing, train station retail, and delivery. During the pre-war period, the system of newspaper distribution was undergoing gradual changes. Normative acts issued in the late 19thcentury were no longer enough to efficiently control the spread of information; state measures were often insufficient and untimely. The existing system of state supervision of newspaper distribution failed to respond to the crisis, therefore the public had an access to information the government wished to conceal and to literature that was forbidden. The validity of the results of the research will be recognized by lecturers, by teachers who conduct Russian history classes, by teachers conducting classes in the history of journalism.

Public art libraries and artists and designers: a symbiotic scheme for success

1987 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Dane
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Public Art ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
Art Exhibitions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
Career Opportunities

The inter-relationship between art librarians and artists/designers in the public library sector in America has been a reality since the early 20th century when libraries were organized into subject departments. This specialized clientele is eclectic and ranges from novices to the most accomplished artists and includes architects, art directors, illustrators, calligraphers, craftspeople and photographers in addition to painters, sculptors and graphic artists. Materials and services in public art libraries are highly diversified and the literature of other disciplines is also readily available. The increase in art exhibitions and special collections is noted in addition to a new focus on information for career opportunities, art law and the handicapped. Current developments set the stage for the continuing symbiotic relationship between public art librarians and artists/designers into the 21st century.

Colonial Material Collections and Representations of Devadasi Bodies in the Public Sphere in the Early 20th-Century South India

Anthropos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 531-546
Author(s):  
Rajalakshmi Nadadur Kannan
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
South India ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ideal Woman ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Guardian

This article discusses how the politics of morality in the early 20th-century South India, in its gendered nation-building exercise, reified a distinction between sacred/profane by using devadasis’ bodies as material objects in the public sphere. Traditional performers of dance and music, devadasis were chosen to represent the profane in a series of historical developments in which both Europeans and Indian colonial elites participated in constructing and using the categories of the sacred and profane to classify sex and body as material, profane, and obscene. Specifically targeting devadasis, these developments resulted in ostracization and criminalization of devadasis and their communities. Using statues, poems, and literature as examples, this article shows how devadasis were collected as material objects and used to represent the notion that some bodies and sex were fundamentally materialistic whilst others were not, such as that of the “new woman” who was imagined to be an ideal woman, and the guardian of the sacred space in the colonial and postcolonial India.

scholarly journals Public organisations of Vologda in the early 20th century

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
Kirill А. Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Local Population ◽  
The State ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Organisations

The article describes the activities of public organisations in the early 20th century in Vologda and Vologda Province. It is shown that the activity of the public was constantly growing during the study period. Moreover, the political activity of the society was significantly influenced by all-Russia events, while non-political organisations slowly but surely extended their influence to an increasing number of spheres of life of the local population. Public organisations constantly cooperated with both state authorities and local self-government. The research is based on working with materials on Vologda Province, their analysis to understand how the mechanism of cooperation and interaction of local self-government bodies with the provincial government, the Governor and the bureaucracy was built. As a result of the study, it became possible to show that the number of public organisations in Vologda Province had been growing since the early 20th century, although the number of political organisations was not enough. There were also no serious conflicts or opposition from the authorities in relation to public organisations. Most of the public structures were apolitical in nature and dealt mainly with social issues without paying attention to the problems of interaction with the state authorities.

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