The Renaissance Reception of Nahua Paideia in the Writings of Bernardino de Sahagún: An Aesthetic Approach to Religion

In this article, I propose that books I–VI of Bernardino Sahagún’s Códice florentino, which discuss the moral and religious philosophies of indigenous Mexicans, should be interpreted through the lens of Renaissance humanist linguistic and philosophical theories. I demonstrate that, utilizing Franciscan–Bonaventurean epistemology, Sahagún put forward a method of evangelizing that intended to separate “the good from the bad” in indigenous cultures. In an effort to defend my claim, I first lay out some of the problems surrounding the Códice florentino. Second, I describe the general theological and cosmological views held by the Aztecs, so that, third, I may develop the main principles of the philosophy of flor y canto (in xochitl in cuicatl). Against a political interpretation that is often defended by appealing to the traditional rituals performed in the Aztec empire, I contend that their philosophy should be interpreted from the perspective of Nahua religion and aesthetics. I also discuss Sahagún’s reception of Aztec philosophy in the Códice with a focus on his interest in the linguistic and empirical dimensions of Nahua religion.

Mawlana Mawdudi’s Concept of Political Islam

Syed Abul A'la Mawdudi was a Muslim scholar, ideological thinker, philosopher, jurist and journalist. He worked for the revival of Islam and disseminated his understanding of ‘true Islam’. This paper is categorized into two sections. The first section of this paper aims to explore the concept of Mawlana Mawdudi regarding political Islam and his role as a 20th century Islamic revivalist. The second section deals with critique of Mawlana Wahiduddin Khan on Mawlana Mawdudi’s powerful Islamic ideology. Mawlana Mawdudi viewed Islam as the religion that is all-encompassing and Islamic state as universal that should not be limited to a particular geographical region and Muslims should strive for the establishment of Islamic state through Islamic revolution. In Mawlana Khan’s ‘The Political Interpretation of Islam’, he considered Mawlana Mawdudi’s distinctly political interpretation as problematic.

Medium der konkurrierenden Herrschaftsrepräsentation?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that opera seria was designed as a power-enhancing spectacle to impress not only local publics but also foreign courts, particularly the major European power players. Modern scholarship considers official envoys as the main agents of transmitting information about performances, titles, storylines and the meaning of operas. However, this common perception can be disproved by evaluating the reports of the Austrian embassy in Berlin between 1740 and 1780, the critical years of political rivalry between Austria and Prussia. Music and opera are rarely mentioned in the coverage of court and political news; a targeted interest in their aesthetic value or potential political interpretation did not exist. These findings challenge common perceptions of serious opera as a means of princely representation between the courts of the ancien regime.

There’s Something about Murray: Victorian Literary Societies and Alfred Forman’s Translation of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen

Alfred Forman’s translations of Richard Wagner’s operas are often derided for their weird diction and minute imitation of German poetic devices. Forman has seemed to represent a zealous and uncritical approach to Wagner that was typical of the early London Wagner Society. But London’s literary societies were important preprofessional gatherings for the appreciation and research of vernacular literature at a time when universities restricted who could study and what could be studied. Forman contributed to other London societies and organized for them dramatic readings of Wagner’s poetry featuring Forman’s wife, Alma Murray. In making Wagner legible and audible for these societies, Forman aligned Wagner with contemporary radical poets and promoted the Ring as a political allegory. Forman’s translations, far from cranky or cultish, show how Victorian society culture affected translation practices, renewed study of poetic alliteration, and inaugurated the political interpretation of Wagner’s works.

Die drei Ortssprachen Estlands in Edzard Schapers Roman Der Henker und in seiner estnischen Übersetzung

The Three Local Languages of Estonia in Edzard Schaper’s novel The Executioner and in its Estonian Translation. This article analyses the reflection of everyday multilingualism in Edzard Schaper’s novel Der Henker (The Executioner, 1940) and its translation into Estonian by Katrin Kaugver (Timukas, 2002). The novel deals with the 1905 revolution in the current Estonian territory, which was at that time a province of the Russian Empire. The novel was written shortly before the outbreak of World War II and translated into Estonian 60 years later after the end of the Soviet era. The complexity and the fluctuation of the contextual elements between the storyline of the novel, the time of its writing and the time of the translation make the novel a rewarding object of research into settings of multilingualism in everyday life. The article focuses on the manifest and latent forms of multilingualism, on the functions of the local languages, as well as on the question whether it helps to analyse language use in real life situations. It also looks at how local multilingualism, dominated by three local languages – German, Russian and Estonian – has been translated from one local language (German) into another local language (Estonian). The examples chosen in the article highlight some regularities in the use of the local and other languages, and offer a cultural-historical and socio-political interpretation of the use of multilingualism.

Penafsiran Politik Kolonel Bakri Syahid dalam "Al-Huda: Tafsir Qur'an Basa Jawi"

Alquran itu kitab terbuka, yang bisa didekati oleh siapapun dengan latar belakang apapun dan untuk kepentingan apapun. Sisi sosial-kemasyarakatan dan aktivitas pembaca akan mewarnai tafsirannya. Kian dekat seorang mufassir dengan lingkaran kekuasaan misalnya, maka karya tafsirnya (dipastikan) kian pro status quo. Tafsir karya Kolonel Bakri Syahid berjudul "al-Huda: Tafsir Qur'an Basa Jawi", seorang mufassir militer, apresiatif terhadap kebijakan Orba; menyokong Negara Demokrasi Pancasila, BIN/BAKIN, UUD 1945, Pelita 1 s.d. V, ABRI/TNI, negara relijius yang “bukan negara agama dan bukan negara sekuler”, pembangunan dan ketahanan nasional, juga ibadah politik, ibadah ideologi dan ibadah militer. Ini menguatkan tesis political reading of scripture-nya Tim Gorringe, abuse of quranic verses-nya Azyumardi Azra, juga political interpretation of the qur’a>n-nya Stefan Wild. Inilah corak baru dalam penafsiran: al-lawn al-siyasi (corak politik).

Biopolitical Foundation of The Theory of M.M. Bakhtin's Carnival

Bakhtin is an ambiguous thinker, who manifests himself as well in the political interpretation of his ideas. The political context of Bakhtin's thought is mostly considered based on the work “Rabelais and His World”. The article aims to identify the meaning structures of Bakhtin's work on Rabelais, which determine the political interpretation of his concept. The highlighted meaning structures are interconnected. They represent a series of Bakhtin's theses on the classificatory character of the division of cultural consciousness, on the decline of the laughter principle, etc. These theses form a coherent narrative that can be interpreted in completely different ways. Bakhtin's concept may be presented by interpreters in liberal or leftist way, as well as deeply conservative. These interpretations are based on different understandings of the status of carnivalization, which is essentially identical to the phenomenon of transgression. Accordingly, the second aim of the article is to show how Bakhtin understood transgression. To contextualize Bakhtin's concept of carnivalization, some of his points, which are similar to the ones made by the theorists of the ambivalent sacred (J. Bataille and R. Caillois) are considered. But a fact remains that requires explanation: Bakhtin's thought does not fit well into the framework of one or another political interpretation. As an explanation, a hypothesis of the biopolitical basis of Bakhtin's concept is put forward. The Agamben's figure of naked life constituted by sovereign power is contrasted with the Bakhtin's figure of material-bodily bottom, as the idea of the collective immortality of the people.

Socio-Philosophical And Political Interpretations Of Liberalism

This article examines the features of the validity of the ideas of liberalism in the socio-political life of society, its manifestations, its achievements and some critical views on this doctrine. So far, the lack of special philosophical monographs devoted to the teachings of liberalism indicates the importance of research in this direction. Having studied the socio-philosophical aspects of this ideology, the author considers it appropriate to comprehensively study the features of the validity of liberal ideas.The article considers the priority of this problem in modern society from the point of view of the manifestation of the conceptual foundations of liberal-democratic ideas.On the basis of the reform of society and the formation of a socially oriented market economy, a deeper analysis of the socio-political strategic goals and objectives of the idea of liberalism, tested in the world experience, the sustainable development of the country, the implementation of fundamental and urgent tasks aimed at achieving the well-being of the population is necessary. The article analyzes the philosophical and political interpretation of liberalism. From a practical point of view, the methodological relations of the explanation and acceptance of modern forms of liberalism in relation to the classical content are based on the ideas of the classics about the modern analysis of liberalism. The positive role of classical liberalism, the struggle against absolutism on the basis of political instruments were considered as scientifically and philosophically grounded teachings and progressive humanistic transformations of public consciousness. The "classical" and "neoliberal" currents of liberalism are also analyzed. The essence of the philosophy of liberalism is explained.