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Despite the understanding of scholars that masculinity, far from being a natural or stable concept, is in reality a social construction, the culture at large continues to privilege an idealized, coherent male point of view. The Privilege of Crisis draws on the work of authors such as H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, and Joseph Conrad--as well as contemporary postcolonial writers such as J. M. Coetzee, Hanif Kureishi and Zadie Smith--to show how recurrent references to a "crisis" of masculinity or the decline of masculinity serve largely to demonstrate and support positions of male privilege.
"Camp" is often associated with glamour, surfaces and an ostentatious display of chic, but as these authors argue, there is an underside to it that has often gone unnoticed: camp’s simultaneous investment in dirt, vulgarity, the discarded and rejected, the abject. This book explores how camp challenges and at the same time celebrates what is arguably the single most important and foundational cultural division, that between the dirty and the clean. In refocusing camp as a phenomenon of the dark underside as much as of the glamorous surface, the collection hopes to offer an important contribution to our understanding of the cultural politics and aesthetics of camp.
The Total Enemy explores the most radicalized forms of enmity, trying to unravel some of its historical and contemporary expressions. Starting from the premise that one of modernity's constitutive values is non-violence, the book explores how non-violence, or rather the making of a world free of violence, becomes a cause of violence, in some instances even extreme violence and totalitarian terror. The book consists of six case studies each exploring and discussing historically specific expressions of depicting an enemy as one the actors believe they can only deal with violently. It begins by looking at two important sites in the development of the total enemy, the French Revolution and the e...
This book concerns itself with the origin of speech and language, takes the reader through the steps of dialectic (how to reason) and rhetoric (how to persuade), examines the importance of stories and symbols and the role of thinking, and highlights the necessity of silence and the practice of meditation. Though it is written from a philosophical perspective, it is eminently practical, with guidelines, exercises, ancient advice, and concrete suggestions on how to communicate, convince, and commune with one’s self. Dr. Costello draws on both Eastern and Western thought to show the power, poetry, and potential of words. It explores the following: how to question (Socrates and Plato); how to argue (Aristotle and Cicero); how to be right (Schopenhauer); how to think (Heidegger); how to spot your speaking style (the enneagram); how to communicate compassionately (Thich Nhat Hanh); how to meditate and stay silent (various contemplative traditions).
This book, which draws on the principles and practices of philosophy, is packed full of sound, concrete advice and guidance from the wise of both East and West. It shows us how to become free of fear—that tyrant of the soul by living more from the Self than the ego. Dr. Costello details the dynamics of fear from the perspective of Advaita Vedanta—its forms and figures—before presenting the nine fundamental fears with the help of the Enneagram system. There are Stoic strategies for facing fears, existential exercises, and recommended daily practices. Dr. Costello writes as both a philosopher and clinician and brings to this fascinating subject, in which we’re all implicated, his erudition in both theory and therapy. The work complements his online course hosted by Udemy, “Therapy Technique for Anxiety, Phobias, & OCD,” which highlights the importance of “paradoxical intention,” derived from Viktor Frankl’s school of philosophical psychology.
These papers, from the annual Summer/Spring School of the IRTG, revolve around the theme of “troubling the social”, exploring the complex relationships between religion, social worlds and transformation from the vantage point of the postcolony—not so much as a geographical location, but rather as a way to understand the world. The contributions examine the coloniality inherent within the academic enterprises related to religion, but also what, how, and why religious experiences, worldviews and engagements count as knowledge and the implications this has for understanding, examining, and activating social transformation processes. Processes of transformation have been prominent within t...
Intended to encourage and disseminate lively and open discussion of themes pertinent to German Studies, viewed from all angles (literary, artistic, musical, theoretical) Edinburgh German Yearbook takes particular interest in cultural problems and issues arising out of politics and history. Volume 2 examines the meanings and significance of 'masculinity' in German culture, from medieval mystics to the cultural impact of young male immigrants living in Germany today.
Scholars and activists often narrate the history of gender and feminism as a progression of "waves," said to mark high points of innovation in theory and moments of political breakthrough. Arguing for the notion of multiple futurities over that of progressive waves, Beyond Gender combines theoretical work with practical applications to provide an advanced introduction to contemporary feminist and sexuality research and advocacy. This comprehensive monograph documents the diversification of gender-related disciplines and struggles, arguing for a multidisciplinary approach to issues formerly subsumed under the unified field of gender studies. Split into two parts, the volume demonstrates how t...
Emphasizing the global nature of racism, this volume brings together historians from various regional specializations to explore this phenomenon from comparative and transnational perspectives. The essays shed light on how racial ideologies and practices developed, changed, and spread in Europe, Asia, the Near East, Australia, and Africa, focusing on processes of transfer, exchange, appropriation, and adaptation. To what extent, for example, were racial beliefs of Western origin? Did similar belief systems emerge in non-Western societies independently of Western influence? And how did these societies adopt and adapt Western racial beliefs once they were exposed to them? Up to this point, the few monographs or edited collections that exist only provide students of the history of racism with tentative answers to these questions. More importantly, the authors of these studies tend to ignore transnational processes of exchange and transfer. Yet, as this volume shows, these are crucial to an understanding of the diffusion of racial belief systems around the globe.
Masquerade and Femininity: Essays on Russian and Polish Women Writers introduces the reader to the diversity of women’s writing in Poland and Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries in the light of the notion of masquerade. The present articles scrutinize particular works by women writers (Nadezhda Dmitrievna Khvoshchinskaia, Irina Odoevtseva, Vera Pavlova, Narcyza Żmichowska, Maria Komornicka, Irena Krzywicka and others) and the strategies of masquerading female experience. Taken together, the articles draw attention to the feeling of an inexpressible gap between the living body (and its everyday life experience of pain and suffering or happiness and pleasure) and the culturally constructe...