Public Critique & Acclaim

2018 ◽  
pp. 166-178
Author(s):  
Andrys Onsman ◽  
Robert Burke
Keyword(s):  
Public Critique

“[P]lain and passive fortitude”: Stoicism and Spaces of Dissent in Sejanus

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Burdick Smith
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
First Year ◽  
Editorial Decision ◽  
Critical Interpretation ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Public Critique

In Ben Jonson's Sejanus, performed at court in the first year of King James’ reign in 1603, Arruntius seemingly figures as “Jonson's spokesperson.” While lauding the moral responsibility of Arruntius, some critics have portrayed the Senator as a passive Stoic whose “only outlet is speech.” For a poet who emphasizes the moral and didactic responsibility of authorship, why, then, does his spokesman inhabit a peripheral space in criticism? Critical interpretation of Arruntius depends on the editorial decision to render many of Arruntius’ lines as asides or as public critique, and this editorial crux is examined vis-à-vis early modern attitudes toward public engagement. I argue that the play negotiates the tensions between the patient Neostoicism of Justus Lipsius and politically active Senecan Stoicism. Arruntius navigates those tensions through Ciceronian ideals of friendship, which provide an alternative to the rampant flattery and tyranny at Tiberius’ court. I show that the play responds to larger political anxieties concerning James I's recent ascension to the throne, and that interpreting early modern Stoicism as entirely passive disregards the complex discourse of friendship that permeates the period.

Media Representations of Terrorism

2014 ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
John Downing
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Middle Easterners ◽  
Public Critique ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Terrorist Events

This chapter begins with a comparative overview of violence against civilians in war, terrorist events, and torture. The comparisons are between the United States since the 9/11 attacks, Britain during the civil war in Northern Ireland 1969-2000, and France during and since the Algerian armed liberation struggle of 1954-1962. The discussion covers the general issues involved, and then summarizes existing research on British and French media representations of political violence. This chapter then proceeds to a critical-discourse analysis of the U.S. Fox Television channel's highly successful dramatic series, 24. The series is currently considered one of the most extended televisual reflections on the implications of 9/11. Political violence, counter-terrorism, racism, and torture are central themes demonstrated in this television series. It is argued that the show constructs a strangely binary imaginary of extremist and moderate “Middle Easterners” while simultaneously projecting a weirdly post-racist America. In particular, the series articulates very forcefully an ongoing scenario of instantaneous decision-making, under dire impending menace to public safety, which serves to insulate the U.S. counter-terrorist philosophy and practice from an urgently needed rigorous public critique.

scholarly journals The opportunism of populists and the defense of constitutional liberalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Lane Scheppele
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Liberal Constitutionalism ◽  
Public Critique

AbstractLiberal constitutionalism is under attack from a new breed of autocrats broadly classified as populist. These populists understand the weaknesses of constitutional liberalism and attack their opponents with criticisms that take advantage of internal weaknesses of the theory. But a closer analysis of theoretical framework used by populists to substitute for constitutional liberalism reveals that they are not really committed to populism in any serious sense. Instead, they have abandoned liberalism in the quest for raw power. Focusing on Viktor Orbán of Hungary and his chief ideologist András Lánczi, this article shows how their public critique of liberalism has attempted to wrong-foot their critics and how their recipe for gaining and wielding political power is only populist to the extent that these leaders are determined to (and often succeed in) winning elections. By peeling back the cover of populist ideology to look at the theories of legitimation under which they rule, however, we can see that the new breed of autocrats aims at primarily constitutional deconstruction through the concentration of political power in one leader. This sort of challenge to liberal constitutionalism is easily countered.

When Words become too Violent: Silence as a Form of Nonviolent Resistance in the Book of Jeremiah

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Samuel Hildebrandt
Keyword(s):  
Physical Violence ◽  
Alternative Response ◽  
Basic Framework ◽  
Nonviolent Resistance ◽  
Book Of Jeremiah ◽  
Public Critique

Throughout the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet is depicted as a victim of verbal and physical violence to which he often responds with fierce imprecations. My study articulates a basic framework in which these troubling passages can be understood and used responsibly by contemporary readers (“Speech as a Response to Violence”) but then argues that Jeremiah’s prayer in Jer 18 violates the balance and boundaries of this framework (“Speech as a Response too Violent”). Inasmuch as this discussion reveals the problems and potential dangers of speech, I offer a reading of Jer 15–16, 26, and 28 that highlights the prophet’s silence as an alternative response to violence. This silence, I argue, is not a form of submissive suffering but an act of public critique and strategic disengagement. Jeremiah’s silence speaks powerfully and peacefully in his own violent context and, by extension, may speak so also in ours.

Imprimatur as Adversary: Press freedom and colonial governance in India, 1780–1823

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
RITIKA PRASAD
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Sovereign Authority ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
Public Critique

Abstract Examining cases of libel between 1780 and 1823, this article analyses how the theory and practice of press regulation and governmentality was initially articulated in colonial India, embodied in everyday transactions between the newly invented East India Company state and an emerging newspaper press. While Company officials recognized that scrutiny by a free press was central to establishing their fairly new claims to just governance and public legitimacy, they feared that public critique would destabilize the very sovereign authority that they sought to establish. Concerned with appearing arbitrary, officials developed strategies through which they could demand obedience without necessarily predicating it on censorship. Journalists derived much of their negotiating power from the early colonial state's vulnerability to public scrutiny, but they also knew that the state possessed extensive control over their livelihood. Cognizant of the power and constraints of colonial governmentality at this juncture, they produced their own mechanisms of permissible intransigence. This uneasy equilibrium generated the questions explored in this article: What rights of comment and critique practically accrued to newspapers? What was the legal authority of executive regulations censoring newspapers and how far were these enforceable? Why, in practice, did punishments remain strikingly similar across periods with and without formal censorship? The cases between 1780 and 1823 not only reveal the historical negotiations that structured this foundational—though somewhat marginalized—period of India's press history, but also explain the strategic shifts that followed as, in 1823, the fulcrum of crime and punishment turned away from press censorship and towards press licensing.

scholarly journals FAST principles for preprint feedback

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Franco Iborra ◽  
Jessica Polka ◽  
Sara Monaco ◽  
Sharon Ahmad ◽  
Maryrose Franko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Strong Interest ◽  
Public Critique ◽  
Senior Colleague

There has been strong interest in preprint commenting and review activities in recent years. Public preprint feedback can bring benefits to authors, readers and others in scholarly communication, however, the level of public commenting on preprints is still low. This is likely due to cultural barriers, such as fear by authors that criticisms on their paper will bias readers, editors and evaluators, and concerns by commenters that posting a public critique on a preprint by a more senior colleague may lead to retribution. In order to help address these cultural barriers and foster positive and constructive participation in public preprint feedback, we have developed a set of 14 principles for creating, responding to, and interpreting preprint feedback. The principles are clustered around four broad themes: Focused, Appropriate, Specific, Transparent (FAST). We describe each of the FAST principles and designate which actors (authors, reviewers and the community) each of the principles applies to. We discuss the possible implementation of the FAST principles by different stakeholders in science communication, and explore what opportunities and challenges lie ahead in the path towards a thriving preprint feedback ecosystem.

The Rhetoric of Heavy Metal Resistance: Musical Modalities in Iraqi Public Life

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Foster
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Heavy Metal Resistance ◽  
Metal Resistance ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Critique

Abstract This article explores the possibilities of heavy metal as an active and vital part of Iraqi civic life. Using a rhetorical analysis, the public dimensions of Iraqi heavy metal are shown to offer cathartic relief and public critique, craft identities and community, and foster modes of identification between Iraqi and Western public spheres. A survey of resources (over 100 texts total) was conducted primarily around the bands Acrassicauda and Dog Faced Corpse. Texts for analysis narrate artists' relationships to their music, to Iraq and to their sociopolitical condition. This article concludes that heavy metal acts as a modality, or way of crafting publics, in Iraq. Rooted in the sounds and social fabric of today's Iraqi youth, heavy metal modalities offer a unique amalgam of personal pain, public commentary and global cultural ties that succinctly capture the tension and struggle of a transitioning new Iraq.

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