„Moartea autorului”. Analiza multispectrală a unui topos cultural

Transilvania ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 71-79
Author(s):  
Luigi Bambulea
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Western Tradition ◽  
Death Of God ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Metaphysical Tradition ◽  
Multispectral Analysis ◽  
Necessary Existence ◽  
Death Of The Author ◽  
Shed Light

The present reflection proposes a novel investigation method in humanities, consisting in the analysis of local phenomena as originating in the dynamic of cultural `deep structures`. My focus falls on the death of the author which I consider to be a topos and a myth of last century’s humanities. The death of the author is associated with the Hegelian eschatological philosophy of history, but may also be deciphered as a consequence of the acute manifestation, within an entire culture, of the Kantian antinomy regarding the necessary existence of a transcendent being. As transcendent to the work, the author is refuted – because, as Hugo Friedrich shows, the modern artistic conscience intuited the empty ideality of traditional metaphysical notions –. Thus, the death of the author must be inquired upon not only as a particular phenomenon within the evolution of art, but also as a symptom of certain transformations that precede the aesthetical domain, transformations that are characteristic to the late Modernity and integrant of a `multispectral` analysis (with scopes in metaphysics, archetype and myth analysis). Such a methodological exigence is based on the assumption that a cultural phenomenon ought to be integrated within the scientific paradigm it expresses and also within the ontological and cosmological models around which it is articulated. An approach such as this shall reveal that the death of the author represents and intellectual version of the death of God, further assimilated to a cultural archetype, that of the death of Meaning. Consequently, the postmodern deicide represents the imposal of negation as a form of thought, a Western thought headed, with the end of Modernity, against the metaphysical tradition (of Presence) that it stems from. I assume that the self-destruction of Western tradition is symptom of a profound crisis of identity and I interpret it as a symbolic violence meant to redeem the fault of 20th Century’s atrocities, by cleansing the guilt the Western man experiences. My approach to the analysis of myth engages the actual debate regarding the canonical fights of the last few decades while trying to shed light on the way in which the symbolic deicide of the (`secularized`) author and auctor aims at imposing a new author and a new auctor to the symbolic products of culture. Ideology is the new auctorial authority.

scholarly journals The Rise and Fall of the Ŭnhasu Orchestra

2018 ◽  
pp. 63-96
Author(s):  
Pekka Korhonen ◽  
Werner Koidl
Keyword(s):  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
Korean Art ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
The North ◽  
Kim Jong Il ◽  
Internet Publishing ◽  
Core Class ◽  
Shed Light

The Ŭnhasu Orchestra was a major North Korean ensemble in 2009–2013. It was established by Kim Jong Il (Kim Chŏng’il, 김정일) and was composed of young musicians and singers of both genders, several of them having studied in foreign higher educational institutions in countries like Austria, Italy, Russia and China. Its members represented the core class of the North Korean society. It was ostensibly meant to display the high quality of North Korean art and engage at this level also in international cultural diplomacy, both in terms of physical visits, and in terms of DVD and internet publishing. In addition to domestic concerts, the Ŭnhasu Orchestra performed with visiting Russian artists, and gave a concert in Paris in 2012. The Ŭnhasu Orchestra exemplifies also the problems with regime transition in North Korea. It was so closely tied with the Kim Jong Il regime that the change at the end of 2011 to the Kim Jong Un (Kim Chŏng’un, 김정은) regime did not proceed altogether smoothly. In August 2013 it was disbanded rather abruptly, causing an international uproar, and signalling the beginning of a wave of other purges leading up to the highest leadership levels. The article attempts to shed light on the nature of the Orchestra as a North Korean cultural phenomenon and the reasons for its sudden ending, trying to dispel some of the disinformation surrounding the event.

scholarly journals Critical Remarks on the Theoretical Significance of Vahanian’s Death of God Theology (Brief Review)

wisdom ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-66
Author(s):  
Andranik STEPANYAN
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Cultural Perceptions ◽  
Death Of God ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Theoretical Significance

The aim of this article is to briefly present and analyse in the context of radical theology the theoretical significance of Gabriel Vahanian’s death of God theology from the theological, philosophical and cultural viewpoints. Gabriel Vahanian was a French-Armenian distinguished theologian who played a significant role in the western religious, theological-philosophical thought. The main idea of Vahanian is that the death of God is a cultural phenomenon. God himself is not dead, but men’s religious and cultural perceptions about God are dead as modern man has lost the sense of transcendence and the presence of transcendent God. That is, the death of God means his absence in the modern world. The existence of God and his reality are not self-sufficient realities anymore but are irrelevant for modern people, hence dead.

I and others: alcohol use among older people as a social and cultural phenomenon

1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 563-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
EIJA TOLVANEN
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Older People ◽  
Social Indicator ◽  
Independent Factor ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Cultural Stereotypes ◽  
Drinking Habits ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Cultural Indicator ◽  
Shed Light

Analysing transcripts of survey interview episodes, this paper examines the ways in which older people in Finland talk about their use of alcohol. It also aims to shed light on the meaning of alcohol use in the context of social ageing.The use of alcohol was described in forty structured interviews with people aged 60–89 years. They provided accounts of drinking situations or contexts, or juxtaposed their own drinking habits with that of ‘others’. Perceptions of these ‘others’ were constructed by interviewees from cultural stereotypes of Finnish drinking habits.Descriptions of alcohol use were embedded in everyday life and cultural frames rather than in those of old age or ageing. In the context of social ageing, alcohol use appeared in these interviews as a cultural indicator, reflecting the cultural habits and norms attached to drinking. As a social indicator, it suggested that advanced age is losing its significance as an independent factor distinguishing lifestyles.

Rouseau’s Reading of the Book of Genesis and the Theology of Commercial Society

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wokler ◽  
Christopher Brooke
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Commercial Society ◽  
Natural Goodness ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
Shed Light

This chapter raises the question of why the themes and images so central to Rousseau's account of our natural goodness and social corruption are not to be found in the most seminal exposition of his philosophy of history. It addresses this question with regard to the still extant fragments of the Discours sur l'inégalité, in so far as they shed light on its original framework and the range of topics in it that Rousseau initially intended to develop. Just as the Contrat social distilled only a number of themes from a larger treatise he at first planned to call the Institutions politiques, so the second Discours embraces only a part of his philosophy of history, whose elaboration elsewhere can be traced to both early and intermediate sketches of the text, of which the manuscript submitted for publication has been lost.

ON THE QUESTION OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF THE NON-VERBAL CULTURE OF THE CIRCASSIANS

2021 ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
Murat A. Khokonov ◽  
Zareta Kh. Soblirova ◽  
Roman P. Liseyev
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Personal Space ◽  
Traditional Society ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
The World ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Comprehensive Study

The article discusses issues related to socio-cultural manifestations of corporeality in the Circassian traditional society. The article presents cultural, philosophical and anthropological approaches on corporeality as a specific socio-cultural phenomenon. Particular attention is paid to proxemics and kinesics, that are used in the paper as theoretical basis of the study of the non-verbal communications in the Circassian's culture. The paper argues the need in a comprehensive study of sign and gesture systems as integral part of the Circassian ethos. Authors suggest a new philosophical and anthropological view on somatic culture as one of the most important subsystems of the traditional Circassian mentality. Objective ideas on the non-linguistic components of communication shed light on many specific features of the ethnocultural picture of the world of the Circassians. The authors focus on such spatial forms of structuring of social relations as social distance, personal space, hidden meanings of various types and forms of social distances. The paper justifies that the corporeality, in general, and the kinesic aspects of traditional upbringing, in particular, were of great importance in socialization of younger generations.

‘We can’t live without beliefs’: Self and society in therapeutic engagements

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suvi Salmenniemi
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
The Self ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethical Work ◽  
Knowledge And Practice ◽  
Shed Light

Therapeutic technologies of happiness, emotional wellbeing and self-improvement are a highly influential cultural phenomenon and a rapidly growing business worldwide; yet little is known of the motivations for engaging with these technologies. This article addresses this gap by investigating how therapeutic engagements are experienced and what participants hope to gain from them. Therapeutic technologies are conceived as psychologically informed regimes of knowledge and practice which aim to transform one’s relationship to oneself and shape the ways in which one makes sense of and acts upon oneself and the social world. Drawing on a set of interviews with consumers of therapeutic technologies in Russia, the article identifies three key motivations for engaging with such technologies: searching for new blueprints for ethical work on the self after a profound transformation of the ideological field; coming to terms with new mechanisms of inequality, particularly in the field of labour; and mobilizing therapeutic technologies as a response to inadequacies in the field of health. By unpacking these motivations and subjective experiences of therapeutic engagements, the article seeks to shed light on the growing popularity of therapeutic technologies under contemporary capitalism.

scholarly journals The Function of Code-Switching in Selma Dabbagh’s Out of It

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Bilal TawfiqHamamra ◽  
Salsabil Qararia
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Shed Light

Bilingualism and biculturalism have a very immediate impact on the make-up of literary works of bilingual and bicultural authors with immediate linguistic traces of bilingual and bicultural mosaic of textual creation. Code-switching is a linguistic and cultural practice used by bilinguals in writing and speaking. This article examines the linguistic and cultural phenomenon of code-switching employed in Selma Dabbagh’s novel Out of It (2011). We argue that Dabbagh uses code-switching from English into Arabic so as to address the concerns of Palestinians and maintain her Palestinian belonging. At the very beginning, we explain what is meant by code-switching and briefly elucidate the reasons why bilingual authors use this technique. Thereafter, we shed light on the author’s background and expound the different types of code-switching she employs in Out of It. The upshot of this article clears up cultural and textual hybridity as the product of the application of code-switching.

scholarly journals PHENOMENON OF MEMORY IN RETROSPECTIVE OF ANTIQUITY

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Space ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Natural Property ◽  
Western Tradition ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
True Knowledge ◽  
Platonic Theory ◽  
Real Forms

The article deals with the formation of understanding and interpretation of the phenomenon of memory in the European philosophical tradition. The historical-cultural and linguistic-semantic connections of the ideological paradigm of Ancient Greek thinkers and philosophers are researched. In article revealded a peculiarities of the main philosophical categories of Plato’s philosophy in the context of explaining the phenomenon of memory and memories. We realized a distinction for better understanding of the phenomenon of memory for ancient culture into two branches: 1) memory as a natural property of man and 2) memory as a technique, as a skill for perfection, as an instrument. We emphasize that ancient categories: eidos, logos and cosmos are the central of the theory of memory of the western tradition, which we can also observe in the treatises left by Plato. Also we analyzed the connection between the Platonian theory of memory and the development of knowledge about memory paradigm. Memory for Plato is determined by a metaphysical character, like immortal knowledge, it is a way of human transcendence. An intelligent soul for Plato is the translator of eternal knowledge of things through which we learn not only the world, but also receive knowledge (remember) about ourselves, our true perceptual perception, and represent our ideas in real forms. The soul of man for Plato, due to memory, connects human existence from outside the physical space and time, where there is simultaneously the past, present and future, which at the metaphysical level are united into a concrete conceptual design of memory. Thus, the Platonic theory of memory as a reproduction of knowledge can not relate to the development of the art of memory, but has a direct connection with the development of the paradigm of knowledge about memory and allows us to understand the concept of memory as a philosophical and cultural phenomenon. We noted that the theory of Plato’s memory resembles the same categories as the art of memory, it is a category of “place” bearing memory-reflection in the memory of the soul and “image” of true knowledge.

scholarly journals On the Power of A (Good) Story: Why Game of Thrones Had to End (This Way) And What Can Slavoj Žižek Tell Us About It?

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Gačanović
Keyword(s):  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Political Commentary ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Way ◽  
Game Of Thrones

During and after the airing of the last season of “Game of Thrones” there had been a multitude of critical reactions from the viewers around the world. This article is centered particularly around the criticism of the socio-political commentary found within the show. In that regard, the focus will be on an analysis of a short article written by Žižek, published in online edition of The Independent, titled “Game of Thrones tapped into fears of revolution and political women – and left us no better off than before” in which he outlines his own critique of the show. Since Žižek is one of the most renown intellectuals of our time, I find Žižek’s beliefs and the way he outlines them worthy of analysis, especially since the analysis is about the most globally popular show of the second decade of the 21st century. Contextualizing Žižek’s writing into a more basic critical discourse which had developed around the way the writers, Benioff and Weiss, decided to end the show, here I shall shed light on a couple of points which are in either direct or indirect link with the source text. The following aspects shall be considered: Firstly, the influence Žižek has on his like-minded audience and on what his influence is based upon, i.e. what are his responsibilities as a well-known, outspoken intellectual; then, continued breakdown of certain aspects of the plot and character development from the show about which Žižek himself has written; finally, “Game of Thrones” itself will be taken into consideration as a work of fiction and as a global cultural phenomenon. One of the main goals of this article is to showcase the dangers of reading these kinds of “instant” articles without applying the necessary levels of critical thought, especially when they bear the signature of a worldwide renown intellectual. But maybe even more important than that, is to show how there lies a possibility for multiple different ways of interpreting and enjoying the show, of how open it is as a work of fiction; to indicate how important it is to study such a cultural phenomenon within anthropology with a holistic approach.

Evil Lords

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Specific Power ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Western Tradition ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Cross Fertilization ◽  
Shed Light

This edited volume uses the prism of bad rule or tyranny to sharpen our understanding of political discourse from the ancient world to the Renaissance. Eleven chapters present case studies examining Hebrew, Greco-Roman, Byzantine, early, high, and late medieval, and Renaissance conceptions and representations of bad or tyrannical government. Since bad rule is always a perversion of the norm, its shifting conceptualizations shed light on historically specific assessments of what constitutes legitimate and acceptable political behavior. Meanwhile, political debate also reflects specific power structures, authors, and audiences. The book’s chapters, therefore, examine notions of bad rule within the ideological frameworks and societal patterns of the respective periods, thus painting a picture of historical and intellectual change. However, these often profound variations notwithstanding, the book also shows that it is meaningful to think of its subject as a ‘premodern Western tradition’, in the sense of an exchange of ideas. There are shared roots in Greek and biblical thought, and ongoing cross-fertilization spanning two millennia. Moreover, the rationale of both pro- and anti-monarchical discourse by and large derives from virtue ethics, in their Greek, Roman, and Christian incarnations. This reliance on morality as the foundation of political organization only declined in the sixteenth century, which therefore marks the end of the story of tyranny in premodern political thought told in this volume.

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