Pan-Africanism: Freedom for Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-157
Author(s):  
David Johnson
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bessie Head ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Wide Reading ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
Lauretta Ngcobo ◽  
Alex La Guma

The Pan-Africanist dream of freedom as expressed in South African political writings and literature from the 1940s to 1970s is the focus of the final chapter. The Pan-Africanist dreams expressed in political discourse that are discussed include: the ANC Youth League’s Manifesto (1944); the ANC’s Programme of Action (1949); the political writings of Muziwakhe Anton Lembede, A. P. Mda and Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe; the PAC’s Manifesto of the Africanist Movement (1959); and the articles and reviews in PAC publications like The Africanist and Mafube. Pan-Africanist dreams of freedom expressed in literary terms are discussed in sections on Lembede’s thoughts on individual literary works; Mda’s prescriptions for literature; Sobukwe’s wide reading and eclectic literary tastes; Melikhaya Mbutumu’s praise poems; novels hostile to the PAC by Peter Abrahams, Richard Rive and Alex la Guma; and novels sympathetic to the PAC by Lauretta Ngcobo and Bessie Head. The popularity within the PAC of Howard Fast’s novels My Glorious Brothers (1948) and Spartacus (1951) is also assessed.

scholarly journals Dis/Graceful Liberties: Textual Libertinism/ Libertine Texts in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-45
Author(s):  
Hager Ben Driss
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Political Allegory ◽  
The Aesthetic

Abstract This essay addresses J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, a Booker Prize winner in 1999. The novel captures South African political and cultural turmoil attending the post-apartheid transitional period. Far from overlooking the political allegory, I propose instead to expand on a topic only cursorily developed elsewhere, namely liberty and license. The two terms foreground the textual dynamics of the novel as they compete and/or negotiate meaning and ascendency. I argue that Disgrace is energized by Coetzee’s belief in a total liberty of artistic production. Sex is philosophically problematized in the text and advocated as a serious issue that deserves artistic investigation without restriction or censorship. This essay looks into the subtle libertinism in Coetzee’s text, which displays pornographic overtones without exhibiting a flamboyant libertinage. Disgrace acquires its libertine gesture from its dialogue with several literary works steeped in libertinism. The troubled relationship between the aesthetic and the ethical yields an ambiguous text that invites a responsible act of reading.

scholarly journals Political Discourse Through Literary Quotations

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 99-106
Author(s):  
A.A. Muradyan
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Significant Factors

This article touches upon some of the main singularities of the political discourse in its connection with classical and modern literature. A brief overview of the main terms used in the article is provided. The analysis of quotes and literary works used in political speeches is carried out to identify the most significant factors in the selection of certain intertextual elements depending on the communication.

“I'd make thee eat the mischief thou hast vented”: Discourse of Law in Ben Jonson's Catiline His Conspiracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Akihiko Shimizu
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Gunpowder Plot ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Legal Procedures ◽  
The Way

This essay explores the discourse of law that constitutes the controversial apprehension of Cicero's issuing of the ultimate decree of the Senate (senatus consultum ultimum) in Catiline. The play juxtaposes the struggle of Cicero, whose moral character and legitimacy are at stake in regards to the extra-legal uses of espionage, with the supposedly mischievous Catilinarians who appear to observe legal procedures more carefully throughout their plot. To mitigate this ambivalence, the play defends Cicero's actions by depicting the way in which Cicero establishes the rhetoric of public counsel to convince the citizens of his legitimacy in his unprecedented dealing with Catiline. To understand the contemporaneousness of Catiline, I will explore the way the play integrates the early modern discourses of counsel and the legal maxim of ‘better to suffer an inconvenience than mischief,’ suggesting Jonson's subtle sensibility towards King James's legal reformation which aimed to establish and deploy monarchical authority in the state of emergency (such as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). The play's climactic trial scene highlights the display of the collected evidence, such as hand-written letters and the testimonies obtained through Cicero's spies, the Allbroges, as proof of Catiline's mischievous character. I argue that the tactical negotiating skills of the virtuous and vicious characters rely heavily on the effective use of rhetoric exemplified by both the political discourse of classical Rome and the legal discourse of Tudor and Jacobean England.

The Concept of “Zemsky Sobor” in the Interpretation of State Authority in Russia of the 19th Century: From Karamzin to Stepnyak-Kravchinsky

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 140-155
Author(s):  
Dmitry A. Badalyan
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
State Authority ◽  
The 19Th Century

“Zemsky Sobor” was one of the key concepts in Russian political discourse in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. It can be traced to the notion well-known already since the 17th century. Still in the course of further evolution it received various mew meaning and connotations in the discourse of different political trends. The author of the article examines various stages of this concept configuring in the works of the Decembrists, especially Slavophiles, and then in the political projects and publications of the socialists, liberals and “aristocratic” opposition.

Police Department and Slavophil Political Discourse

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 123-136
Author(s):  
Lyubov V. Ulyanova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Russian Empire

The article analyzes the political discourse of the officials of the main political surveillance structure, – the Police Department, – in the period of 1880s (organization of the Department) and until October, 1905, when the Western-type Constitution project finally prevailed. The comparative analysis of the conceptual instruments (“Constitutionalists”, “Oppositionists”, “Radicals”, “Liberals”) typically used in the Police Department allows one to come o the conclusion that the leaders of the Russian empire political police did not follow the “reactionary and protective” discourse, did not share its postulates, but preferred the moderate-liberal-conservative path of political development. Along with that, the Police Department also demonstrated loyal attitude to zemsky administration and zemsky figures, covert criticism of “bureaucratic mediastinum”, the tendency to come to an agreement with public figures through personal negotiations, intentional omittance of reactionary and protective repressive measures in preserving autocracy. All this allows to come to the conclusion that the officials of the Police Department shares Slavophil public and political doctrine.

‘Sovereign Democracy’ and the Politics of Ideology in Putin’s Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-104
Author(s):  
Dima Kortukov
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Color Revolutions ◽  
Revolutionary Praxis ◽  
Over Time

Abstract The concept of sovereign democracy dominated the political discourse in Russia in 2006–8 but lost much of its significance since. In this article, I argue that sovereign democracy is best understood as the response of Russia’s authorities to the threats of democratization, following Eurasian color revolutions. I distinguish between three conceptually distinct aspects of sovereign democracy: (1) a social contract (2) a legitimation discourse; and (3) a counter-revolutionary praxis. These dimensions allow us to understand what functions sovereign democracy fulfilled within the framework of Russia’s authoritarian regime and why it lost its prominence over time.

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