Public Art and the Fragility of Democracy: An Essay in Political Aesthetics
Author: Fred Evans File Type: pdf Public space is political space. When a work of public art is put up or taken down, it is an inherently political statement, and the works aesthetics are inextricably entwined with its political valences. Democracys openness allows public art to explore its values critically and to suggest new ones. However, it also facilitates artworks that can surreptitiously or fortuitously undermine democratic values. Today, as bigotry and authoritarianism are on the rise and democratic movements seek to combat them, as Confederate monuments fall and sculptures celebrating diversity rise, the struggle over the values enshrined in the public arena has taken on a new urgency. In this book, Fred Evans develops philosophical and political criteria for assessing how public art can respond to the fragility of democracy. He calls for considering such artworks as acts of citizenship, pointing to their capacity to resist autocratic tendencies and reveal new dimensions of democratic society. Through close considerations of Chicagos Millennium Park and New Yorks National September 11 Memorial, Evans shows how a wide range of artworks participate in democratic dialogues. A nuanced consideration of contemporary art, aesthetics, and political theory, this book is a timely and rigorous elucidation of how thoughtful public art can contribute to the flourishing of a democratic way of life. **
Author: Sheldon Brammall
File Type: pdf
This book covers the period from the beginning of Elizabeths reign to the start of the English Civil War, during which time there were thirteen authors who composed substantial translations of Virgils epic.
Author: Yvonne Brewster
File Type: epub
In 2012 Jamaica celebrates the 50th anniversary of Independence. Mixed Company is a collection of three of the finest early Jamaican theatrical works, written for the most part before the dawn of Independence.Written in 1954 (The Creatures by Cicely Waite-Smith), 1960 (Bedward by Louis Marriott) and 1970 (Maskarade by Sylvia Wynter), the plays are examples of works conceived with a Jamaican audience in mind, a Jamaican audience conscious of the melting pot in which it lived.Each offers a unique perspective on the spirit of a people who held on to traditional beliefs and customs in the face of colonial opprobrium as the populace struggled to gain its political, social and cultural independence.
Author: Iain MacKenzie
File Type: pdf
Throughout history, comedians and clowns have enjoyed a certain freedom to speak frankly often denied to others in hegemonic systems. More recently, professional comedians have developed platforms of comic license from which to critique the traditional political establishment and have managed to play an important role in interrogating and mediating the processes of politics in contemporary society. This collection will examine the questions that arise when of comedy and critique intersect by bringing together both critical theorists and comedy scholars with a view to exploring the nature of comedy, its potential role in critical theory and the forms it can take as a practice of resistance. **Review This fascinating book draws on current and recent critical theories to frame and contextualise individual chapters on - amongst others - satire, stand-up, cartoons, slapstick and the visual arts. The theories are clearly explained, often emphasising the playful uses of humour and comedy as a critical tool. Reading it has opened up new avenues in my own thinking about comedy. (Dr. Richard Cuming, Clown Advisor and Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts, University of Winchester) This rich, varied collection opens up new ways of thinking about the critical force of humour. Situated at a surprising place where theory and philosophy, politics and comedy, critique and resistance all meet, it combines sophisticated conceptual reflections with insightful case-studies drawn from stand-up, cartoons, performance art, literature and more. Fascinating, intriguing, and amusing it sets an agenda for activist theorists and practitioners across the disciplines. (Alan Finlayson, Professor of Political and Social Theory, University of East Anglia) About the Author Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone is the Associate Lecturer in English and Drama, University of Kent, University of Malta. Fred Francis is an Assistant Lecturer in English at the University of Kent. Iain MackKenzie is the Co-Director Centre for Critical Thought and Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent.
Author: Steven Salaita
File Type: pdf
The age of transnational humanities has arrived. According to Steven Salaita, the seemingly disparate fields of Palestinian Studses and American Indian studies have more in common than one may think. In InterNationalism, Salaita argues that American Indian and Indigenous studies must be more central to the scholarship and activism focusing on Palestine. Salaita offers a fascinating inside account of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movementwhich, among other things, aims to end Israels occupation of Palestinian land. In doing so, he emphasizes BDSs significant potential as an organizing entity as well as its importance in the creation of intellectual and political communities that put Natives and other colonized peoples such as Palestinians into conversation. His discussion includes readings of a wide range of Native poetry that invokes Palestine as a theme or symbol the speeches of U.S. President Andrew Jackson and early Zionist thinker Zeev Jabotinsky and the discourses of shared values between the United States and Israel. InterNationalism seeks to lay conceptual ground between American Indian and Indigenous studies and Palestinian studies through concepts of settler colonialism, indigeneity, and state violence. By establishing Palestine as an indigenous nation under colonial occupation, this book draws crucial connections between the scholarship and activism of Indigenous America and Palestine. **
Author: Colin Gardner
File Type: pdf
Becoming-animal is a key concept for Deleuze and Guattari the ambiguous idea of the animal as human and nonhuman life infiltrates all of Deleuzes work. These 14 essays apply Deleuzes work to analysing television, film, music, art, drunkenness, mourning, virtual technology, protest, activism, animal rights and abolition. Each chapter questions the premise of the animal and critiques the centrality of the human. This collection creates new questions about what the age of the Anthropocene means by animal and analyses and explores examples of the unclear boundaries between human and animal. **
Author: Malcolm Macmillan
File Type: pdf
Foreword by Frederick CrewsPsychoanalysis science or belief system? Since its initial publication this critique of Freuds methods for gathering and evaluating evidence has become a classic in Freud scholarship. Malcolm Macmillans exhaustive analysis of Freuds personality theory describes the logical and other assumptions on which Freuds work was based and shows how these assumptions interacted with his clinical observations to produce all-embracing but faulty methods for gathering and evaluating evidence.Macmillan provides a meticulous account of the historical evolution of Freuds thought and its background in Freuds contacts with the books and people that influenced him and evaluates the entirety of the Freudian system. Included is a compilation of major criticisms of the methodology and assumptions of Freudian theory and a new comprehensive afterword by the author surveying the relevant literature published since 1989.(cloth published by Elsevier-North Holland in 1991)**
Author: Patrick Gardiner
File Type: pdf
Evaluates the main features of Schopenhauers thought, its historical importance, and its relation to modern philosophical preoccupations.ReviewThis is a book of great merit, and of absorbing interest . . . it is hard to see how Mr Gardiners exposition - clear, elegant, acute in criticism, unfailing in sympathy - could be improved upon. (Times Educational Supplement) Nobody until Mr. Gardiner has written such a lengthy and complete exposition of his views. . . . Anyone who wishes to comment usefully upon Schopenhauer at all will in future be in debt to Mr Gardiners excellent introduction. (Alasdair MacIntyre, The Guardian) There are very few good books in English on Schopenhauer. This one by Patrick Gardiner . . . is almost the only exception. -- D. W. Hamlyn, Birkbeck College, London
Author: David Ewert
File Type: epub
There are two strands woven together in the history of the Bible and its translations. One is the development of the biblical text its materials, texts, and translations. The second is the story of the men and women who went to great extremes, at times risking death, in order to provide their generation with the Word of God in a language that could be understood. David Ewert skillfully combines both these elements in this informative and captivating book, beginning with what Bible means, how the Bible is organized, and how various books were named. He explores such other matters as the development of the biblical languages, the canon and the history of the testaments, and early versions of the Bible. English translations, from the time of Wycliffe to the present, are the focus of several chapters. A General Introduction to the Bible is filled with photographs of ancient texts, pages from various Bibles, photographs of key individuals and settings -- all of which add understanding to the Bibles history. Maps and charts show the development of languages, textual families, and the relationship of various translations and revisions. There are suggested readings and an extensive glossary and index.
Author: Blake J. Harris
File Type: epub
A mesmerizing, behind-the-scenes business thriller that chronicles how Sega, a small, scrappy gaming company led by an unlikely visionary and a team of rebels, took on the juggernaut Nintendo and revolutionized the videogame industryin development as a feature film from Sony PicturesIn 1990, Nintendo had a virtual monopoly on the videogame industry. Sega, on the other hand, was just a faltering arcade company with big aspirations and even bigger personalities. But all that would change with the arrival of Tom Kalinske, a former Mattel executive who knew nothing about videogames and everything about fighting uphill battles. His unconventional tactics, combined with the blood, sweat, and bold ideas of his renegade employees, completely transformed Sega and led to a ruthless, David-and-Goliath showdown with Nintendo. Little did he realize that Segas success would create many new enemies and, most important, make Nintendo stronger than ever.The battle was vicious, relentless, and highly profitable, eventually sparking a global corporate war that would be fought on several fronts from living rooms and school yards to boardrooms and Congress. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pitted brother against brother, kid against adult, Sonic against Mario, and the United States against Japan.Based on more than two hundred interviews with former Sega and Nintendo employees, Console Wars is the tale of how Tom Kalinske miraculously turned an industry punch line into a market leader. Blake J. Harris brings into focus the warriors, the strategies, and the battles and explores how they transformed popular culture forever. Ultimately, Console Wars is the story of how a humble family man, with an extraordinary imagination and a gift for turning problems into competitive advantages, inspired a team of underdogs to slay a giant and, as a result, give birth to a sixty-billion-dollar industry.