Time to Laugh or to Cry?

Making Waves ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 157-170
Author(s):  
Mairéad Hanrahan
Keyword(s):  
French Text ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Political Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Defining Moment ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Original Time ◽  
First Time ◽  
Over Time

Hélène Cixous’s 1975 ‘Le Rire de la méduse’, later expanded into ‘Sorties’, represented a defining moment in both feminism and literary criticism/theory. When for the first time the French text was republished in 2010, Cixous speculated that the text was – disappointingly – still timely after all those years, contrary to her hopes at the original time of writing. This chapter explores Cixous’s text in relation to time in a number of different respects. It examines the significance of its very particular reception over time, and the implications that the signal failure to read it may have for both feminism and literary criticism/theory. But the chapter also considers the significance of Cixous’s work on time. The very notion of an anniversary, which simultaneously marks both a movement forward and a return to the past, is at odds with the linear, teleological idea of progress that remains dominant in discourses of political struggle. Yet the term ‘revolution’ indicates the importance of a cyclical movement of turning around or returning in effecting political change. This chapter therefore also studies the political dimension of Cixous’s approach to temporality.

G. Lukács, “Techeniye” and Stalinism

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 110-123
Author(s):  
Vladimir Y. Bystrov ◽  
Vladimir M. Kamnev
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
The Political ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Political Criticism ◽  
Political Views ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Over Time

The article discusses the attitude of Georg Lukács and his adherents who formed a circle “Techeniye” (lit. “current”) toward the phenomenon of Stalinism. Despite the political nature of the topic, the authors are aspired to provide an unbiased research. G. Lukács’ views on the theory and practice of Stalinism evolved over time. In the 1920s Lukács welcomes the idea of creation of socialism in one country and abandons the former revolutionary ideas expressed in his book History and Class Consciousness. This turn is grounded by new interpretation of Hegel as “realistic” thinker whose “realism” was shown in the aspiration to find “reconciliation” with reality (of the Prussian state) and in denial of any utopias. The philosophical evolution leading to “realism” assumes integration of revolutionaries into the hierarchy of existing society. The article “Hölderlin’s Hyperion” represents attempt to justify Stalinism as a necessary and “progressive” phase of revolutionary development of the proletariat. Nevertheless, events of the second half of the 1930s (mass repressions, the peace treaty with Nazi Germany) force Lukács to realize the catastrophic nature of political strategy of Stalinism. In his works, Lukács ceases to analyze political topics and concentrates on problems of aesthetics and literary criticism. However, his aesthetic position allows to reconstruct the changed political views and to understand why he had earned the reputation of the “internal opponent” to Stalinism. After 1956, Lukács turns to political criticism of Stalinism, which nevertheless remains unilateral. He sees in Stalinism a kind of the left sectarianism, the theory and practice of the implementation of civil war measures in the era of peaceful co-existence of two systems.

Mandel’štam. Rom. Pasolini

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 291-320
Author(s):  
Chiara Caradonna
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Small Volume ◽  
The Political ◽  
Pier Paolo Pasolini ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The World ◽  
First Time

Mandel’štam. Rome. Pasolini In 1972 a small volume presented for the first time a varied choice of poems by the Russian poet Osip Mandel’štam to the Italian public, translated by Serena Vitale. One of the book’s first and most enthusiastic readers was the poet, film director and intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini, who immediately reviewed it for the Italian newspaper Il Tempo. This review shows the great significance that Mandel’štam’s poetry acquired for Pasolini in the very last years of his life. So much so, that the first verse of Mandel’štam’s late poem, With the world of the powerful …, became the motto of Pasolini’s last, unfinished novel Petrolio. While offering a reading of this poem by Mandel’štam, the present article investigates the reasons for Pasolini’s passionate interest in the Russian poet, and sheds light on the political dimension of both Mandel’štam’s and Pasolini’s œuvre.

5 The Judiciary under Siege: The 1988 Crisis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee HP
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Survival ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
One Stage ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
First Time

This chapter explores the constitutional and political dimensions of the crisis that rocked the Malaysian judiciary in 1988. For the first time in Malaysian legal history, the highest judicial officer in the land was suspended and, after an inquiry to determine whether he should be removed for alleged misbehaviour, was subsequently removed. Following this unprecedented development, two other senior judges of the Supreme Court were also removed from office after an inquiry by a second tribunal. The political dimension cannot be divorced from the constitutional dimension because the legal and constitutional manoeuvrings were consonant with political skirmishes that involved, at one stage, the political survival of Prime Minister Mahathir.

scholarly journals Internal political struggle in Scotland on the issue of the region status in 2007–2011

2021 ◽  
pp. 80-85
Author(s):  
Igor L. Kurs
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
National Party ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
National Conversation ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
First Time ◽  
Scottish Politics

For the first time in the national historiography, various aspects of the internal political struggle in Scotland regarding its political status in 2007–2011 are considered. The key actors in this struggle are identified, the forms and tools used by various political forces to realise their goals are highlighted, and the issue of the Scottish National Party as a government party is explored. The activity of two organisations – «National Conversation» and the Calman Commission, created at the initiative of two opposing camps of Scottish politics, is analysed. It is noted that as a result of their work, the discussion about the political future of the region was brought to a qualitatively new level, and all the main political forces in the region recognised the need to expand the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

scholarly journals La Lega “nazionale” di Salvini alla conquista elettorale del Meridione

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-84
Author(s):  
Roberto De Luca ◽  
Domenico Fruncillo
Keyword(s):  
European Parliament ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Question ◽  
The South ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Italian Regions ◽  
First Moment ◽  
Micro Analysis ◽  
First Time ◽  
Over Time

In the last European elections the League became the first party in Italy also because, for the first time, it collected a large number of votes in the South, exceeding the 20% of votes in the Southern italian regions. In this article we try to evaluate whether that success is temporary or if it will consolidate over time. In other words, the central question is whether the vote to the Leauge party in the South of Italy is weak and volatile or it represents the first moment of its establishment also in these areas of the Country. In details, we try to verify if the success of the Leauge party in the South of Italy can be related to traditional aspects of the parties’ organization, such as the territorial root and the recruitment of political personnel who obtain in the electoral competition personal votes which improve the success of the list. The analysis was conducted through out macro and micro analysis tools. The analysis of the preference vote distribution highlights the electoral contribution offered by all the candidates to the European Parliament by region and by size of the municipalities. The description of some emblematic local cases describes the dynamics through which some local candidates for the European Parliament have contributed to increase the political consensus of the League party in the South of Italy.

scholarly journals Why Did Italian Democracy Become Vulnerable? Theorizing the Change from Neo- to Quasi-Militant Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Joanna Rak ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Change ◽  
Socioeconomic Inequality ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Northern League ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Five Star Movement ◽  
Italian Legislation ◽  
Over Time

Embedded in scholarship on militant democracy, this research aims to explain how Italian legislation was positioned to militant democratic measures and how this changed over time. Drawing on the qualitative source analysis and the explanatory frameworks of democratic vulnerability tests two competing theory-grounded assumptions. While the first one assumes that Italian democracy became vulnerable when traditional militant democracy instruments were outmoded, the second considers the misuse or abandonment of those means with social consent as the source of vulnerability. The crisis-induced socioeconomic inequality and uncertainty weakened the Italian political nation. As a result, the latter supported populists in return for a promise of political change. The anti-democratic legal means employed to extend power competencies and prevent the exchange of ruling parties were the way to and the costs of the expected political change. At the same time, the political nation became unable to self-organize to strengthen democracy self-defense. As a result, Italians co-produced a quasi-militant democracy that turned vulnerable because militant democracy measures were misused or not used with the consent of Italians that relinquished their political subjectivity in favor of the Northern League and the Five Star Movement.

Understanding the Politics of Pericles around 450 BCE: The Benefits of an Economic Perspective

2018 ◽  
pp. 269-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Hampus Lyttkens ◽  
Henrik Gerding
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
Rational Actor ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Fierce Competition ◽  
Over Time

Perikles is usually seen as a great statesman and clever leader of the Athenians. In the mid fifth century BC, he seems however to have been in serious political trouble and may well have been in danger of losing the political struggle against his opponent Kimon. The fact that his incentives changed considerably at this point in time seems to have escaped attention in the literature. In contrast, we see Pericles’ rational responses to fierce competition as a motivation, which exerted its influence alongside several other motivating factors, for several important policy measures introduced by Perikles at this particular time: the pay to jurors, the new law on citizenship (which has been a puzzle to many historians), and the building projects on the Acropolis and elsewhere. An economic rational-actor approach thus provides a diachronic analytical benefit by focusing on the way incentives change over time and it provides a synchronic benefit by dealing with various decisions in a common framework.

Friendships of 'Largeness and Freedom'

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Rabindranath Tagore ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Freedom Movement ◽  
First Time ◽  
Bear Witness ◽  
Political Success ◽  
The Way

Friendships of ‘Largeness and Freedom’ presents the story of three remarkable individuals—Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, and the Anglican missionary Charles Freer Andrews. Brought together for the first time, the letters in this volume not only bear witness to their friendship but also reveal the universal principles they adopted to pursue freedom from colonial rule. Together, the three friends have given us an alternative legacy—the legacy of a nationalism that worked with complete restraint, that cried halt to the freedom movement whenever it turned violent, and that proclaimed the way forward to be in self-suffering and not in hatred of the enemy. They firmly believed that there must be no separation between the spiritual and the political, even in a political struggle. As Tagore wrote: ‘I know such spiritual faith may not lead us to political success, but I say to myself, as India has ever said: Tatah kim? Even then, what?’ Offering a glimpse into the recesses of their minds, their letters help us see what their lives were like beyond the myths and legends that often surround such iconic individuals.

Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley L. Paulson
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Hans Kelsen ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
Over Time

This chapter traces the intellectual relationship between Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt. It is well known that the two legal thinkers had sharply contrasting views on sovereignty, democracy, and the role of unity in the law and in politics. Less well known is Schmitt’s proximity, in his very early work, to Kelsen on certain issues, such as the “is”-“ought” distinction and “points of imputation.” This proximity was short-lived, and the discord between their views increased over time, culminating in the Weimar period in their diametrically opposed views on the “guardian” of the constitution. This chapter reconstructs the evolution of this intellectual antagonism, exploring Schmitt’s arguments under four rubrics: subsumption, the narrow interpretation of “material facts,” the political dimension of the judicial decision, and the neutrality of the Reich president. The thrust of Kelsen’s replies is captured in the idea that Schmitt is engaged in political ideology.

Past Sovereignty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Over Time

Ideas of self-sovereignty and self-sacrifice drew American and French revolutionaries to Roman virtuous exemplars—and into errors of reception, according to prominent contemporaries. Focusing on Benjamin Constant’s and Edmund Burke’s critique of the excited pleasure revolutionaries take in imitating Roman models, this chapter asks what insight into the mechanisms of political change we may gain by studying the revolutionary desire for Rome and the rage felt by the opponents of revolution against that desire. Constant and Burke, insofar as they discuss how the liberal free autonomous self rules itself and relates to others, and how modern thought relates to the past, take up problems still essential to the political thought of modernity. By considering the rhetorical extremes of both liberal and conservative thinkers in their reactions to Roman tradition, we understand better how such critiques of pleasure, desire, and imitation determine the transmission of political ideals over time.

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