Modernity, Modernism, and Fascism. a "Mazeway Resynthesis"
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The Primitivist Critique of Modernity: Carl Einstein and Walter Benjamin1
The Primitivist Critique of Modernity: Carl Einstein and Walter Benjamin1 David Pan In the “Sirens” episode in Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus, relying on nothing more than the wax in his sailors’ ears and the rope binding him to the mast of his ship, was able to hear the sirens’ song without being drawn to his death like all the sailors before him.2 Franz Kafka, finally giving the sirens their due, points out that their song could certainly pierce wax and would lead a man to burst all bonds. Instead of attributing Odysseus’ sur- vival to his cunning use of technical means, which he calls “childish mea- sures,”3 Kafka attributes it to the sirens’ use of an even more horrible weapon than their song: their silence. Believing his trick had worked, Odysseus did not hear their silence, but imagined he heard the sound of their singing, for no one could resist “the feeling of having triumphed over them by one’s own strength, and the consequent exaltation that bears down everything before it.”4 The sirens disappeared from Odysseus’per- ceptions, which were focused entirely on himself. Kafka concludes: “If the sirens had possessed consciousness, they would have been annihilated at that moment. But they remained as they had been; all that had hap- pened was that Odysseus had escaped them.”5 Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno have argued that this ancient 1. From Primitive Renaissance: Rethinking German Expressionism by David Pan. Copyright 2001 by the University of Nebraska Press. 2. Homer, Odyssey, Book 12, pp.166-200. 3. -
The Radical Roots of the Alt-Right
Gale Primary Sources Start at the source. The Radical Roots of the Alt-Right Josh Vandiver Ball State University Various source media, Political Extremism and Radicalism in the Twentieth Century EMPOWER™ RESEARCH The radical political movement known as the Alt-Right Revolution, and Evolian Traditionalism – for an is, without question, a twenty-first century American audience. phenomenon.1 As the hipster-esque ‘alt’ prefix 3. A refined and intensified gender politics, a suggests, the movement aspires to offer a youthful form of ‘ultra-masculinism.’ alternative to conservatism or the Establishment Right, a clean break and a fresh start for the new century and .2 the Millennial and ‘Z’ generations While the first has long been a feature of American political life (albeit a highly marginal one), and the second has been paralleled elsewhere on the Unlike earlier radical right movements, the Alt-Right transnational right, together the three make for an operates natively within the political medium of late unusual fusion. modernity – cyberspace – because it emerged within that medium and has been continuously shaped by its ongoing development. This operational innovation will Seminal Alt-Right figures, such as Andrew Anglin,4 continue to have far-reaching and unpredictable Richard Spencer,5 and Greg Johnson,6 have been active effects, but researchers should take care to precisely for less than a decade. While none has continuously delineate the Alt-Right’s broader uniqueness. designated the movement as ‘Alt-Right’ (including Investigating the Alt-Right’s incipient ideology – the Spencer, who coined the term), each has consistently ferment of political discourses, images, and ideas with returned to it as demarcating the ideological territory which it seeks to define itself – one finds numerous they share. -
Metamodernism, Or Exploring the Afterlife of Postmodernism
“We’re Lost Without Connection”: Metamodernism, or Exploring the Afterlife of Postmodernism MA Thesis Faculty of Humanities Media Studies MA Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Giada Camerra S2103540 Media Studies: Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Leiden, 14-06-2020 Supervisor: Dr. M.J.A. Kasten Second reader: Dr.Y. Horsman Master thesis submitted in accordance with the regulations of Leiden University 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 1: Discussing postmodernism ........................................................................................ 10 1.1 Postmodernism: theories, receptions and the crisis of representation ......................................... 10 1.2 Postmodernism: introduction to the crisis of representation ....................................................... 12 1.3 Postmodern aesthetics ................................................................................................................. 14 1.3.1 Sociocultural and economical premise ................................................................................. 14 1.3.2 Time, space and meaning ..................................................................................................... 15 1.3.3 Pastiche, parody and nostalgia ............................................................................................ -
Action Yes, 1(7): 1-17
http://www.diva-portal.org This is the published version of a paper published in . Citation for the original published paper (version of record): Bäckström, P. (2008) One Earth, Four or Five Words: The Notion of ”Avant-Garde” Problematized Action Yes, 1(7): 1-17 Access to the published version may require subscription. N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper. Permanent link to this version: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-89603 ACTION YES http://www.actionyes.org/issue7/backstrom/backstrom-printfriendl... s One Earth, Four or Five Words The Notion of 'Avant-Garde' Problematized by Per Bäckström L’art, expression de la Société, exprime, dans son essor le plus élevé, les tendances sociales les plus avancées; il est précurseur et révélateur. Or, pour savoir si l’art remplit dignement son rôle d’initiateur, si l’artiste est bien à l’avant-garde, il est nécessaire de savoir où va l’Humanité, quelle est la destinée de l’Espèce. [---] à côté de l’hymne au bonheur, le chant douloureux et désespéré. […] Étalez d’un pinceau brutal toutes les laideurs, toutes les tortures qui sont au fond de notre société. [1] Gabriel-Désiré Laverdant, 1845 Metaphors grow old, turn into dead metaphors, and finally become clichés. This succession seems to be inevitable – but on the other hand, poets have the power to return old clichés into words with a precise meaning. Accordingly, academic writers, too, need to carry out a similar operation with notions that are worn out by frequent use in everyday language. -
Pushkin and the Futurists
1 A Stowaway on the Steamship of Modernity: Pushkin and the Futurists James Rann UCL Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2 Declaration I, James Rann, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 3 Acknowledgements I owe a great debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Robin Aizlewood, who has been an inspirational discussion partner and an assiduous reader. Any errors in interpretation, argumentation or presentation are, however, my own. Many thanks must also go to numerous people who have read parts of this thesis, in various incarnations, and offered generous and insightful commentary. They include: Julian Graffy, Pamela Davidson, Seth Graham, Andreas Schönle, Alexandra Smith and Mark D. Steinberg. I am grateful to Chris Tapp for his willingness to lead me through certain aspects of Biblical exegesis, and to Robert Chandler and Robin Milner-Gulland for sharing their insights into Khlebnikov’s ‘Odinokii litsedei’ with me. I would also like to thank Julia, for her inspiration, kindness and support, and my parents, for everything. 4 Note on Conventions I have used the Library of Congress system of transliteration throughout, with the exception of the names of tsars and the cities Moscow and St Petersburg. References have been cited in accordance with the latest guidelines of the Modern Humanities Research Association. In the relevant chapters specific works have been referenced within the body of the text. They are as follows: Chapter One—Vladimir Markov, ed., Manifesty i programmy russkikh futuristov; Chapter Two—Velimir Khlebnikov, Sobranie sochinenii v shesti tomakh, ed. -
British Fascism: a Discourse- Historical Analysis'
H-Socialisms Cohen on Richardson, 'British Fascism: A Discourse- Historical Analysis' Review published on Sunday, October 27, 2019 John E. Richardson. British Fascism: A Discourse-Historical Analysis. Explorations of the Far Right Series. Stuttgart: Ibidem, 2017. Illustrations. 307 pp. $45.00 (paper), ISBN 978-3-8382-1031-5. Reviewed by Joshua Cohen (University of Leicester) Published on H-Socialisms (October, 2019) Commissioned by Gary Roth (Rutgers University - Newark) Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=54281 Analyzing British Fascism When Colin Cross wrote "British Fascism ended in May 1940 and has not since been revived under that name," he correctly assessed that Sir Oswald Mosley's Union Movement (UM), formed in 1948, neither hid nor disowned its fascist past. Still, this reference to the past and "ex-fascists" implied acceptance of the UM's claim to have transcended fascism, that it went "beyond both fascism and democracy."[1] The idea of fascism as a historical phenomenon existing mainly in the past was expressed in Stanley Payne's assertion that fascism was "primarily limited to Europe during the era of the two world wars."[2] One of the most important contributions John E. Richardson makes in the excellent British Fascism: A Discourse-Historical Analysis is his repudiation of such analyses by demonstrating the long continuities within British fascism, its survival across the postwar period into the present, and, above all, the grave danger of regarding fascism as "over." He engages both with historiography and the "heuristic blind spot" of some political scientists that makes them reluctant to acknowledge contemporaneous movements as "fascist." For Richardson, this accounts for the continual formation of such myriad terms as "extreme right," "radical right," and "extreme right-wing populist"—he does not say it but "alt-right" suggests itself here too (pp. -
LEISURE PLACES and MODERNITY the Use and Meaning of Recreational Cottages in Norway and the USA
LEISURE PLACES AND MODERNITY The use and meaning of recreational cottages in Norway and the USA Daniel R. Williams and Bjom P Kaltenborn Williams, D. R., & Kaltellbom, B. P. (1999). Leisure places and modernity: The use and meaning of recreational cottages in Norway and the USA. In D. Crouch (Ed.), Leisure practices and geographic Itnowledge (pp. 214-230). London: Routledge. Introduction When we think of tourism we often dunk of travel to exotic destinations, but modernization has also dispersed and extended our network of relatives, friends, and acquaintances. Fewer people live out their lives in a single place or even a single region of their natal country. Modern forms of dwelling, working, and playing involve circulating through a geographically extended network of social relations and a multiplicity of widely dispersed places and regions. Much of the "postmodern" discourse on tourism leaves the impression that tourists seek out only the exotic, authentic "other" and experience every destination through a detached "gaze" that rarely engages the "real" (i.e., uncommodified) aspects of the place (MacCanneU. 1992, Selwyn 1996, Urry 1990). Contrary to images of "gazing" tourists on a pilgrimage for the authentic, much of modern tourism is rather ordinary and involves complex patterns of social and spatial interaction that cannot be neatly reduced to a shallow detached relation. Leisure/tourism is often less packaged, commodified, and colonial than contemporary academic renderings seem to permit. One widespread, but largely unexamined form of leisure travel involves the seemingly enigmatic practice of establishing and maintaining a second home (what we will generally refer to as cottaginl). -
Florida State University Libraries
Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2009 Gustav Mahler, Alfred Roller, and the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk: Tristan and Affinities Between the Arts at the Vienna Court Opera Stephen Carlton Thursby Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC GUSTAV MAHLER, ALFRED ROLLER, AND THE WAGNERIAN GESAMTKUNSTWERK: TRISTAN AND AFFINITIES BETWEEN THE ARTS AT THE VIENNA COURT OPERA By STEPHEN CARLTON THURSBY A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2009 The members of the Committee approve the Dissertation of Stephen Carlton Thursby defended on April 3, 2009. _______________________________ Denise Von Glahn Professor Directing Dissertation _______________________________ Lauren Weingarden Outside Committee Member _______________________________ Douglass Seaton Committee Member Approved: ___________________________________ Douglass Seaton, Chair, Musicology ___________________________________ Don Gibson, Dean, College of Music The Graduate School has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii To my wonderful wife Joanna, for whose patience and love I am eternally grateful. In memory of my grandfather, James C. Thursby (1926-2008). iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this dissertation would not have been possible without the generous assistance and support of numerous people. My thanks go to the staff of the Austrian Theater Museum and Austrian National Library-Music Division, especially to Dr. Vana Greisenegger, curator of the visual materials in the Alfred Roller Archive of the Austrian Theater Museum. I would also like to thank the musicology faculty of the Florida State University College of Music for awarding me the Curtis Mayes Scholar Award, which funded my dissertation research in Vienna over two consecutive summers (2007- 2008). -
Modernity, the Avant-Garde, and the Event J
Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature Volume 3 Article 4 Number 2 Fall 2002 Fall 2002 Review of The iH storicity of Experience: Modernity, the Avant-Garde, and the Event J. M. Bernstein New School for Social Research Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmrcl Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Recommended Citation Bernstein, J. M. (2002). Review of "Review of The iH storicity of Experience: Modernity, the Avant-Garde, and the Event," Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature: Vol. 3 : No. 2 Available at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmrcl/vol3/iss2/4 This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmrcl/vol3/iss2/4 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Bernstein: Bernstein on Ziarek Krzysztof Ziarek, The Historicity of Experience: Modernity, the Avant-Garde, and the Event. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2001. 355 pp. ISBN 0810118351. Reviewed by J. M. Bernstein, New School for Social Research Krzysztof Ziarek has written a dense, finely wrought, and important book. It concerns, centrally, the question of experience, as itself the transformative medium of human temporality, the means through which we have a formative history, and the modern depletion of that type of experience. The notion that modernity is constituted by a transformation in the nature of experience, a destruction of experience in a robust sense, Erfahrung, into a thinner form of immediacy, Erlebnis, stands near the center of Walter Benjamin’s thought, most notably in “The Storyteller― and “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire,― and hence, by extension, The Arcades Project. -
Avant Garde Vs. Moderism
Barrett 1 Mike Barrett 21G.031 Professor Scribner 20 March 2003 Conflict and Resolution of Modernism and the Historical Avant-garde The historical avant-garde and the modernist movement have fundamental differences in both their conceptions of art and its role in the greater scheme of society. While the avant-garde uses drastic new ideas to express and reinforce dramatic political and social changes, modernism attempts to celebrate modern society without connecting artwork back to life. Where the avant-garde and modernism meet, they exist in a symbiotic relationship, with the avant-garde pulling modernism to new thresholds of social progress. The dialectic of the two creates conflict which moves society in a progressive direction, but the resolution keeps humanity connected with the constant social progress of modernity. Modernism’s rise in the twentieth century brought about a preoccupation with form and formalism in society. Modern society evolves through market expansion and appropriation of new technologies, and modern art glorifies this trend without putting it in a social or political context. The focus on mechanization and technology creates a situation where humanity is left only the option of plugging in, or being hopelessly lost in the maelstrom of modernity (Berman 26, 27). High modernism promoted “rigid polarities and flat totalizations” as seen in artwork of that period (Berman 23, 24). Modernist painting stressed the difference between art and life, focusing on the awareness of paint on the canvas rather than an accurate or evocative view on the natural 1 Barrett 2 world. Trends in modernism are towards mechanization and the “machine aesthetic,” and away from concerns of social life (Berman 26). -
S Authoritarian Anti-Statism
Rising Above the Herd: Keith Preston's Authoritarian Anti- Statism "Perhaps what I champion is not so much the anarchist as much as the 'anarch,' the superior individual who, out of sheer strength of will, rises above the herd in defiance and contempt of both the sheep and their masters." — Keith Preston, "The Thoughts That Guide Me: A Personal Reflection" (2005)[1] Introduction Freedom from government tyranny has always been a central theme of right-wing politics in the United States. From the original Ku Klux Klan that denounced "northern military despotism" to the Tea Partiers who vilify Barack Obama as a combination of Hitler and Stalin, U.S. rightists have invoked the evil of big government to both attract popular support and justify their own oppressive policies. Witness the rise of so- called National-Anarchism (NA), an offshoot of British neonazism that has recently gained a small but fast-growing foothold in the United States. National-Anarchists advocate a decentralized system of "tribal" enclaves based on "the right of all races, ethnicities and cultural groups to organize and live separately." National-Anarchists criticize statism of both the left and the right, including classical fascism, but they participate in neonazi networks such as Stormfront.org and promote anti-Jewish conspiracy theories worthy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Anti-statism is a key part of National-Anarchism's appeal and helps it to deflect the charge of fascism.[2] Keith Preston, who calls himself a "fellow traveler" of National-Anarchism, is in some ways even more dangerous. Preston is a former left-wing anarchist who advocates a revolutionary alliance of leftist and rightist libertarians against U.S. -
Between the Axe and the Anvil: Internal Reconstructions of Modern Subjectivity in Alfred Dâ‹Iâ‹
Rhode Island College Digital Commons @ RIC Honors Projects Overview Honors Projects 6-22-2021 Between the Axe and the Anvil: Internal Reconstructions of Modern Subjectivity in Alfred D√∂blin's Berlin, Alexanderplatz Zachary Lopez Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/honors_projects Part of the German Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Lopez, Zachary, "Between the Axe and the Anvil: Internal Reconstructions of Modern Subjectivity in Alfred D√∂blin's Berlin, Alexanderplatz" (2021). Honors Projects Overview. 201. https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/honors_projects/201 This Honors is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Projects at Digital Commons @ RIC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Projects Overview by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ RIC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BETWEEN THE AXE AND THE ANVIL: INTERNAL (RE)CONSTRUCTIONS OF MODERN SUBJECTIVITY IN BERLIN, ALEXANDERPLATZ By Zachary Lopez An Honors Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Honors in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Rhode Island College 2021 Lopez 1 Scholarship surrounding Alfred Döblin’s Berlin, Alexanderplatz has mainly focused on the novel’s cinematic qualities, epic structure, or its subversion of traditional narratology. Less often examined are the ways in which modern constructions of subjectivity are transformed as the barriers between interior and exterior space are threatened, subverted, and deconstructed within the text. Compounding this oversight is the fact that although Berlin, Alexanderplatz is considered one of the major Großstadt (big city) novels (such as Ulysses, Manhattan Transfer, Petersburg, Mrs. Dalloway), continued scholarship has largely neglected it.