scholarly journals Time's Arrow as Postmodern Apocalypse: Temporal Ruptures, Perpetual Crisis and the Cultural Imagination

eTopia ◽  
2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Wiebe Taylor

Martin Amis’s 1991 novel Time’s Arrow narrativizes two major breaks: a split of consciousness that separates the narrator and protagonist who occupy the same body, and a split in temporality that confuses past and future, so that the narrator attempts to understand the protagonist’s life in reverse.1 These schisms within the narrative parallel and invoke two major historical ruptures of the twentieth century: the Holocaust that happened, and the nuclear holocaust that looked likely to occur. Time’s Arrow, set within this historical framework,suggests these holocausts jointly destabilized the directionality and flow of time, trapping the post-World War Two generations in a perpetual postmodern apocalyptic condition. Following Fredric Jameson, I understand “postmodern” as a “periodizing concept” (3), referring to the cultural logic underlying late modern socioeconomic formations and the expression of that logic in the aesthetic realm. Jameson’s analysis of late modern society’s pathological relationship with time and history is particularly relevant to Time’s Arrow. The novel is postmodern in its literary style, with its destabilized first-person narrative voice and refusal of conventional linear time, but style here expresses a deeper cultural crisis, including the parallel loss of “a sense of history” and of “the sense of a viable future” (Hollinger 166-167). In the ever-present shadow of two catastrophic crises—one lurking behind and one looming ahead—the narrative points to massive devastation in either direction, undermining, but not negating, the conceivability of a (better) future. Amis’s novel most powerfully illustrates the continuity between the ‘greatest’ crises ofthe twentieth century by portraying apocalypse and rupture as perpetual phenomena, and evoking the difficulty of imagining beyond them.

Author(s):  
Carlos Fajardo Fajardo

RESUMENEl presente artículo pasa revista y analiza algunas de las tesis que Jean François Lyotard, Fredric Jameson y Jean Baudrillard construyeron para dar cuenta de las consecuencias de la llamada crisis de la modernidad y sus repercusiones en el arte. Se presta especial atención a categorías estéticas que surgieron a partir del resquebrajamiento de los pilares del edificio estético de Occidente bajo la globalización y la posmodernidad. De Lyotard se abordan su reflexión sobre la crisis de los grandes relatos y su noción de lo sublime, de Jameson sus apreciaciones sobre el pastiche, la moda retro bajo las lógicas culturales del capitalismo avanzado, y, de Baudrillard, los conceptos de transestética y estetización, y la pérdida de ilusión estética en la sociedad tecno-mediática y de mercados.PALABRAS CLAVESPosmodernidad, sublime, pastiche, moda retro, estetización.MUSO ALLI CHIKUNA SUGLLAPIKai kilkape willakume imasam kai kimsa runakuna Jean Francois Lyotard, Fredic Jameson y Jean Baudrillard rurankuna tukui mana allilla kaskakunata Kawangapa imasam kunaurra, ruranchi, paikuna allilla ñawe churranaku Kawangapa imasam kunaurra ruranchi, paikuna allilla ñawe shuranaku Kawangapa mana paquerechu tuku, kaipe willaku llukanchi llullarenga Allila mana kai atun llakiikuna pasarrengapa mana chingarrengachu Tukui allila ruranakuska tukui runakunamanda.IMA SUTI RIMAI SIMINespa musukauangapa, atun iuiai, kauaskatak rurangapa, kunaurra musu Kauai, retro, estatización.THE NEW SCENERIES OF ART. ABSTRACTThis article reviews and discusses some of the theses that Jean Francois Lyotard, Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard advanced to account for the consequences of the so-called crisis of modernity and its impact on art. Special attention is given to the aesthetic categories that emerged from the breakdown of the pillars of the Western aesthetic building under globalization and postmodernity. From Lyotard, the article picks up his reflections on the crisis of the grand narratives and his notion of the sublime; from Jameson, his theoretical insights on the pastiche and the retro in fashion under the cultural logic of advanced capitalism; and from Baudrillard, the concepts of transaesthetics and aesthetization, and the loss of the aesthetic illusion in the techno-media and market society.KEYWORDSPostmodernism, sublime, pastiche, retro fashion, aesthetization. LES NOUVEAUX DÉCORS DE L’ART. RÉSUMÉCet article examine certaines des thèses que Jean François Lyotard, Fredric Jameson et Jean Baudrillard ont élaborées pour tenir compte des conséquences de la dite crise de la modernité et de son impact sur l’art. Une attention particulière est donnée aux catégories esthétiques qui ont émergé de l’effondrement des piliers de l’édifice esthétique occidental dans le cadre de la mondialisation et du postmodernisme. De Lyotard on aborde sa ré- flexion sur la crise des grands récits et sa notion du sublime ; de Jameson ses vues sur le pastiche et la mode rétro dans la logique culturelle du capitalisme avancé, et, de Baudrillard, les concepts de transesthétique et esthétisation, et la perte de l’illusion esthétique dans la société techno-médiatique et des marchés.MOTS CLÉSPostmodernisme, sublime, pastiche, mode rétro, esthétisation.OS NOVOS ENFEITES DA ARTE. RESUMOO presente artigo passa revista e analisa algumas das teses que Jean Françoeis Lyotard, Fredic Jameson e Jean Baudrillard construíram para dar conta das conseqüências da chamada crise da modernidade e suas repercussões na arte. Presta-se especial atenção a categorias estéticas que surgiram a partir do rachamento dos pilares do edifício estético do Ocidente sob a globalização e a pos-modernidade. De Jameson suas apreciações sobre o pasticho, a moda retro sob lógicas culturais do capitalismo avançado, e, de Baudrillard, os conceitos de trans-estética e estetização, e a perda de ilusão estética na sociedade tecno-mediática e de mercados.PALAVRAS CHAVESPos-modernidade, sublime, pasticho, moda retro, estetização.


Author(s):  
Richard Viladesau

This chapter examines late modern reappropriations of the classical theology of the cross. In continuity with medieval and Reformation theology, these hold that Christ’s suffering was a divinely willed redemptive act, in vicarious satisfaction for human sin. The neo-orthodoxy of Karl Barth, in line with the Reformed tradition, emphasizes election and covenant. The theme of divine kenosis, found in nineteenth century German an English thinkers, is taken up into Orthodox trinitarian soteriology by the Russian theologian Sergei Bulgakov, with strong attention to Patristic dogma. Hans Urs von Balthasar stresses Christ’s “descent into hell” as the central symbol of the divine entry into the lost human condition. Jürgen Moltmann sees the suffering of God as the only possible theological response to the horrors of the twentieth century, especially the Holocaust.


Author(s):  
HUGO RODAS MORALES

Este libro completa otro, cuyo título destaca el largo periodo que estudia: The Long Twentieth Century. Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times (1994), adoptado elogiosamente por la teoría posmoderna —“Cultura y capital financiero” de Fredric Jameson—. El que se reseña fue anticipado parcialmente a los lectores de los números 20 y 32 de la conocida publicación internacional New Left Review, en 2003. Del declive militarista euroestadounidense y el prometedor ascenso social y capitalista chino deriva esta mirada occidental (auto)crítica que anticipa sus desafortunadas páginas finales: declarar que Smith y Marx no han sido bien comprendidos reduce toda obra interpretativa anterior sobre dos océanos de conocimiento y otros tantos de errores.


Author(s):  
Julian Wright

This chapter asks wider questions about the flow of time as it was explored in this historical writing. It focuses on Jaurès’ philosophy of history, initially through a brief discussion of his doctoral thesis and the essay entitled ‘Le bilan social du XIXème siècle’ that he provided at the end of the Histoire socialiste, then through the work of three of his collaborators, Gabriel Deville, Eugène Fournière, and Georges Renard. One of the most important challenges for socialists in the early twentieth century was to understand the damage and division caused by revolution, while not losing the transformative mission of their socialism. With these elements established, the chapter returns to Jaurès, and in particular the long study of nineteenth-century society in chapter 10 of L’Armée nouvelle. Jaurès advanced an original vision of the nineteenth century and its meaning for the socialist present.


Author(s):  
Zuzanna Ladyga

The Labour of Laziness in Twentieth-Century American Literature focuses on the issue of productivity, using the figure of laziness to negotiate the relation between the ethical and the aesthetic. This book argues that major twentieth-century American writers such as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, John Barth, Donald Barthelme and David Foster Wallace provocatively challenge the ethos of productivity by filtering their ethical interventions through culturally stigmatised imagery of laziness. Ladyga argues that when the motif of laziness appears, it invariably reveals the underpinnings of an emerging value system at a given historical moment, while at the same time offering a glimpse into the strategies of rebelling against the status quo


2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gerwarth ◽  
Stephan Malinowski

Historians on both sides of the Atlantic are currently engaged in a controversy about the allegedly genocidal nature of western colonialism and its connections with the mass violence unleashed by Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1945. The debate touches upon some of the most “sensitive” issues of twentieth-century history: the violent “dark side” of modern western civilization, the impact of colonial massacres on the European societies that generated this violence and, perhaps most controversially, the origins and uniqueness of the Holocaust.


Muzikologija ◽  
2008 ◽  
pp. 185-202
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Vasic

Serbian music criticism became a subject of professional music critics at the beginning of the twentieth century, after being developed by music amateurs throughout the whole previous century. The Serbian Literary Magazine (1901- 1914, 1920-1941), the forum of the Serbian modernist writers in the early 1900s, had a crucial role in shaping the Serbian music criticism and essayistics of the modern era. The Serbian elite musicians wrote for the SLM and therefore it reflects the most important issues of the early twentieth century Serbian music. The SLM undertook the mission of educating its readers. The music culture of the Serbian public was only recently developed. The public needed an introduction into the most important features of the European music, as well as developing its own taste in music. This paper deals with two aspects of the music criticism in the SLM, in view of its educational role: the problem of virtuosity and the method used by music critics in this magazine. The aesthetic canon of the SLM was marked by decisively negative attitude towards the virtuosity. Mainly concerned by educating the Serbian music public in the spirit of the highest music achievements in Europe, the music writers of the SLM criticized both domestic and foreign performers who favoured virtuosity over the 'essence' of music. Therefore, Niccol? Paganini, Franz Liszt, and even Peter Tchaikowsky with his Violin concerto became the subject of the magazine's criticism. However their attitude towards the interpreters with both musicality and virtuoso technique was always positive. That was evident in the writings on Jan Kubel?k. This educational mission also had its effect on the structure of critique writings in the SLM. In their wish to inform the Serbian public on the European music (which they did very professionally), the critics gave much more information on biographies, bibliographies and style of the European composers, than they valued the interpretation itself. That was by far the weakest aspect of music criticism in the SLM. Although the music criticism in the SLM was professional and analytic one, it often used the literary style and sometimes even profane expressions in describing the artistic value and performance, more than it was necessary for the genre of music criticism. The music critics of the SLM set high aesthetic standards before the Serbian music public, and therefore the virtuosity was rejected by them. At the same time, these highly professional critics did not possess a certain level of introspection that would allow them to abstain from using sometimes empty and unconvincing phrases instead of exact formulations suitable for the professional music criticism. In that respect, music critics in the SLM did not match the standards they themselves set before both the performers and the public in Serbia.


2017 ◽  
pp. 225-239
Author(s):  
Arkadiusz Morawiec

The article examines genocide as a category that has been used and abused in various, especially historical, political, and ideological, discourses. It considers whether the extermination of Jews (the Holocaust) should be studied in the context of other mass crimes. I investigate various sources of twentieth-century organized violence and their literary representations. I also discuss the works of Polish literature (by Nałkowska, Gębarski, Woroszylski, and Margolis), which depict twentieth- -century acts of genocide (the extermination of Jews and Armenians, in particular) in the context of other mass crimes.


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