EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book The Subversive Utopia

Download or read book The Subversive Utopia written by Yasir Sakr and published by Msi Press. This book was released on 2015-05 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the critical role of modern architects in shaping and transforming national Israeli memory with special regard to Jerusalem. Using as a background the attempts of various architects since the 19th century to construct a national Jewish style, the author focuses his analysis on Louis Kahn's design of the Hurva synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. This study scrutinizes and pieces together discrepant archival documents, drawings, and accounts of intentions, interpretations, events, policies, and projects in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The book reveals an unrecognized crucial interplay of Kahn's Hurvah design with the competing traditional and national symbols of Jerusalem

Book Utopia

    Book Details:
  • Author : David Lee Rubin
  • Publisher : Rookwood Press
  • Release : 1999
  • ISBN : 9781886365100
  • Pages : 248 pages

Download or read book Utopia written by David Lee Rubin and published by Rookwood Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five essays explore 18th-century Francophone utopias in Patot's Masse's Haircut, the schemes of two French exiles in the Netherlands, Rousseau's thought, and the sexual universe of Cercle Social writer Restif de la Bretonne. One contribution is in untranslated French (L'Icosameron de Casanova: Nat

Book The Spirit of Utopia

    Book Details:
  • Author :
  • Publisher : Stanford University Press
  • Release : 2000-08
  • ISBN : 9780804778855
  • Pages : 326 pages

Download or read book The Spirit of Utopia written by and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2000-08 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I am. We are. That is enough. Now we have to start. These are the opening words of Ernst Bloch's first major work, The Spirit of Utopia, written mostly in 1915-16, published in its first version just after the First World War, republished five years later, 1923, in the version here presented for the first time in English translation. The Spirit of Utopia is one of the great historic books from the beginning of the century, but it is not an obsolete one. In its style of thinking, a peculiar amalgam of biblical, Marxist, and Expressionist turns, in its analytical skills deeply informed by Simmel, taking its information from both Hegel and Schopenhauer for the groundwork of its metaphysics of music but consistently interpreting the cultural legacy in the light of a certain Marxism, Bloch's Spirit of Utopia is a unique attempt to rethink the history of Western civilizations as a process of revolutionary disruptions and to reread the artworks, religions, and philosophies of this tradition as incentives to continue disrupting. The alliance between messianism and Marxism, which was proclaimed in this book for the first time with epic breadth, has met with more critique than acclaim. The expressive and baroque diction of the book was considered as offensive as its stubborn disregard for the limits of "disciplines." Yet there is hardly a "discipline" that didn't adopt, however unknowingly, some of Bloch's insights, and his provocative associations often proved more productive than the statistical account of social shifts. The first part of this philosophical meditation--which is also a narrative, an analysis, a rhapsody, and a manifesto--concerns a mode of "self-encounter" that presents itself in the history of music from Mozart through Mahler as an encounter with the problem of a community to come. This "we-problem" is worked out by Bloch in terms of a philosophy of the history of music. The "self-encounter," however, has to be conceived as "self-invention," as the active, affirmative fight for freedom and social justice, under the sign of Marx. The second part of the book is entitled "Karl Marx, Death and the Apocalypse." I am. We are. That's hardly anything. But enough to start.

Book Erotic Utopia

    Book Details:
  • Author : Olga Matich
  • Publisher : Univ of Wisconsin Press
  • Release : 2005-08-01
  • ISBN : 0299208834
  • Pages : 356 pages

Download or read book Erotic Utopia written by Olga Matich and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2005-08-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first generation of Russian modernists experienced a profound sense of anxiety resulting from the belief that they were living in an age of decline. What made them unique was their utopian prescription for overcoming the inevitability of decline and death both by metaphysical and physical means. They intertwined their mystical erotic discourse with European degeneration theory and its obsession with the destabilization of gender. In Erotic Utopia, Olga Matich suggests that same-sex desire underlay their most radical utopian proposal of abolishing the traditional procreative family in favor of erotically induced abstinence. 2006 Winner, CHOICE Award for Outstanding Academic Titles, Current Reviews for Academic Libraries Honorable Mention, Aldo and Jean Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures, Modern Language Association “Offers a fresh perspective and a wealth of new information on early Russian modernism. . . . It is required reading for anyone interested in fin-de-siècle Russia and in the history of sexuality in general.”—Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Slavic and East European Journal “Thoroughly entertaining.”—Avril Pyman, Slavic Review

Book Lacan  Foucault  and the Malleable Subject in Early Modern English Utopian Literature

Download or read book Lacan Foucault and the Malleable Subject in Early Modern English Utopian Literature written by Dan Mills and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-02-13 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theoretically informed scholarship on early modern English utopian literature has largely focused on Marxist interpretation of these texts in an attempt to characterize them as proto- Marxist. The present volume instead focuses on subjectivity in early modern English utopian writing by using these texts as case studies to explore intersections of the thought of Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault. Both Lacan and Foucault moved back and forth between structuralist and post-structuralist intellectual trends and ultimately both defy strict categorization into either camp. Although numerous studies have appeared that compare Lacan’s and Foucault’s thought, there have been relatively few applications of their thought together onto literature. By applying the thought of both theorists, who were not literary critics, to readings of early modern English utopian literature, this study will, on the one hand, describe the formation of utopian subjectivity that is both psychoanalytically (Oedipal and pre-Oedipal) and socially constructed, and, on the other hand, demonstrate new ways in which the thought of Lacan and Foucault inform and complement each other when applied to literary texts. The utopian subject is a malleable subject, a subject whose linguistic, psychoanalytical subjectivity determines the extent to which environmental and social factors manifest in an identity that moves among Lacan’s Symbolic, Imaginary, and Real.

Book Radical Utopianism and Cultural Studies

Download or read book Radical Utopianism and Cultural Studies written by John Storey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-01-25 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Radical Utopianism and Cultural Studies, John Storey looks at the concept of utopianism from a cultural studies perspective and argues that radical utopianism can awaken the political promise of cultural studies. Between the Preface and the Postscript, there are seven chapters that explore different aspects of radical utopianism. The book begins with a definition of what radical utopianism means, with its productive combination of defamiliarization and desire. From there, it considers Thomas More’s invention of the concept of utopia with its double articulation of what is and what could be, Herbert Marcuse’s utopian rereading of Sigmund Freud’s concept of repression, Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers, the Paris Commune, and the Haight-Ashbury counterculture. In the final chapter, Storey examines two versions of utopian capitalism: retro and post. Although the main focus here is on Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign and Paul Mason’s recent bestseller Postcapitalism, the chaper begins with a brief discussion of Karl Marx on capitalism. Each chapter, in a different way, argues that radical utopianism defamiliarizes the manufactured naturalness of the here and now, making it conceivable to believe that another world is possible. This book provides an ideal introduction to utopianism for students of cultural studies as well as students within a number of related disciplines such as sociology, literature, history, politics, and media studies.

Book Utopia

    Book Details:
  • Author : Thomas More
  • Publisher : Penguin UK
  • Release : 2012-08-30
  • ISBN : 0141392207
  • Pages : 184 pages

Download or read book Utopia written by Thomas More and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'It remains astonishingly radical ... one of Utopia's most striking aspects is its contemporaniety' Terry Eagleton In Utopia, Thomas More gives us a traveller's account of a newly-discovered island where the inhabitants enjoy a social order based on natural reason and justice, and human fulfilment is open to all. As the traveller describes the island, a bitter contrast is drawn between this rational society and the practices of Europe. How can the philosopher reform his society? In his discussion, More takes up a question first raised by Plato and which is still a challenge in the contemporary world. In the history of political thought few works have been more influential than Utopia, and few more misunderstood. Translated and introduced by Dominic Baker-Smith

Book Becoming Utopian

Download or read book Becoming Utopian written by Tom Moylan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dream of a better world is a powerful human force that inspires activists, artists, and citizens alike. In this book Tom Moylan – one of the pioneering scholars of contemporary utopian studies – explores the utopian process in its individual and collective trajectory from dream to realization. Drawing on theorists such as Fredric Jameson, Donna Haraway and Alain Badiou and science fiction writers such as Kim Stanley Robinson and China Miéville, Becoming Utopian develops its argument for sociopolitical action through studies that range from liberation theology, ecological activism, and radical pedagogy to the radical movements of 1968. Throughout, Moylan speaks to the urgent need to confront and transform the global environmental, economic, political and cultural crises of our time.

Book Utopia  Ideology and or Everyday Education Practice

Download or read book Utopia Ideology and or Everyday Education Practice written by Wiktor Żłobicki and published by Uniwersytet Wrocławski. Instytut Pedagogiki. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collection of texts by scholars of the Department of General Pedagogy at the University of Wrocław is, on the one hand, an expression of the contemporary approach to general pedagogy as a reflection on multidisciplinary upbringing – mainly of philosophical, sociological and psychological nature, and, on the other hand, a reference to the name of pedagogy and its Greek source of the concept of paidagogos, which describes a slave in ancient Greece who led the sons of free citizens to a place of physical exercise and games.

Book The New Utopian Politics of Ursula K  Le Guin s The Dispossessed

Download or read book The New Utopian Politics of Ursula K Le Guin s The Dispossessed written by Laurence Davis and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Description of the seductions - and snares - of self-managed communist or, in other words, anarchist society. This title, an edited collection of original essays on "Le Guin's The Dispossessed", represents an exploration of the political ramifications of this work by a wide interdisciplinary swath of scholars from around the world.

Book Cinema of Anxiety

    Book Details:
  • Author : Vincent F. Rocchio
  • Publisher : University of Texas Press
  • Release : 2010-07-22
  • ISBN : 0292784961
  • Pages : 212 pages

Download or read book Cinema of Anxiety written by Vincent F. Rocchio and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-07-22 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "new" realism of Italian cinema after World War II represented and in many ways attempted to contain the turmoil of a society struggling to rid itself of Fascism while fighting off the threat of radical egalitarianism at the same time. In this boldly revisionist book, Vincent F. Rocchio combines Lacanian psychoanalysis with narratology and Marxist critical theory to examine the previously neglected relationship between Neorealist films and the historical spectators they address. Rocchio builds his analysis around case studies of the films Rome: Open City, Bicycle Thieves, La Terra Trema, Bitter Rice, and Senso. Through the lens of psychoanalysis, he challenges the traditional understanding of Neorealism as a progressive cinema and instead reveals the anxieties it encodes: a society in political turmoil, an economic system in collapse, and a national cinema in ruins; while war, occupation, collaboration, and retaliation remain a part of everyday life. These case studies demonstrate how Lacanian psychoanalysis can play a key role in analyzing the structure of cinematic discourse and its strategies of containment. As one of the first books outside of feminist film theory to bring the ideas of Lacan to theories of cinema, this book offers innovative methods that reinvigorate film analysis. Clear and detailed insights into both Italian culture and the films under investigation will make this engaging reading for anyone interested in film and cultural studies.

Book The Politics of Utopia

    Book Details:
  • Author : Barbara Goodwin
  • Publisher : Peter Lang
  • Release : 2009
  • ISBN : 9783039110803
  • Pages : 348 pages

Download or read book The Politics of Utopia written by Barbara Goodwin and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2009 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides both an introduction to utopianism and a general perspective on radical political thought. Vigorously disputing the widespread conviction that utopianism is a fantasy with no relevance to modern political life and thought, the authors argue that it is a concept whose special virtue lies in its capacity to transcend the limitations of present circumstances, to inspire alternative thinking and to open up new directions for political action. This book develops an approach which relates social causes to political theory and practice. The first part discusses utopianism as a form of political theory with unique characteristics and the ability to transcend the present. The second part considers utopianism as an expression of fundamental social impulses and as an ingredient of modern political movements. The third part offers a defence of utopianism as both theory and practice, and argues for its use to counteract the pragmatism and narrow empiricism which often passes for political «realism» in modern societies. This reissue of a popular and well-received landmark text contains a new preface.

Book The Safety Utopia

    Book Details:
  • Author : Hans Boutellier
  • Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
  • Release : 2007-05-08
  • ISBN : 1402023987
  • Pages : 156 pages

Download or read book The Safety Utopia written by Hans Boutellier and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My ?rst encounter with the world of crime and punishment was more than two decades ago, and it has since undergone vast changes. No one could have foreseen that crime-related problems would occupy such a prominent position in cultural awareness. Crime is on the rise, the public attention devoted to it has increased even more, and its political importance has mushroomed. The major change in the 1990s was perhaps the transformation of crime into a safety issue. Crime is no longer a matter involving offenders, victims, the police and the courts, it involves everyone and any number of agencies and institutions from security companies to the local authorities and from schools to pub and restaurant owners. Crime has become a much larger complex than the judicial system—a complex organized mentally and institutionally around this one concept of safety. In this book I make an effort to get to the bottom of this complex. It is the sequel to my dissertation Crime and Morality—The Moral Signi?cance of Criminal Justice in a Postmodern Culture (2000), where I hold that the victim became the essence of crime in Western culture, and that this in turn shaped public morality. In the second half of the twentieth century, a personal morality based on an awareness of our own and other people’s vulnerability, i. e. potential victimhood, succeeded the ethics of duty.

Book Avatar and Nature Spirituality

Download or read book Avatar and Nature Spirituality written by Bron Taylor and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Avatar and Nature Spirituality explores the cultural and religious significance of James Cameron’s film Avatar (2010), one of the most commercially successful motion pictures of all time. Its success was due in no small measure to the beauty of the Pandora landscape and the dramatic, heart-wrenching plight of its nature-venerating inhabitants. To some audience members, the film was inspirational, leading them to express affinity with the film’s message of ecological interdependence and animistic spirituality. Some were moved to support the efforts of indigenous peoples, who were metaphorically and sympathetically depicted in the film, to protect their cultures and environments. To others, the film was politically, ethically, or spiritually dangerous. Indeed, the global reception to the film was intense, contested, and often confusing. To illuminate the film and its reception, this book draws on an interdisciplinary team of scholars, experts in indigenous traditions, religious studies, anthropology, literature and film, and post-colonial studies. Readers will learn about the cultural and religious trends that gave rise to the film and the reasons these trends are feared, resisted, and criticized, enabling them to wrestle with their own views, not only about the film but about the controversy surrounding it. Like the film itself, Avatar and Nature Spirituality provides an opportunity for considering afresh the ongoing struggle to determine how we should live on our home planet, and what sorts of political, economic, and spiritual values and practices would best guide us.

Book Australia as the Antipodal Utopia

Download or read book Australia as the Antipodal Utopia written by Daniel Hempel and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2019-10-31 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Australia has a fascinating history of visions. As the antipode to Europe, the continent provided a radically different and uniquely fertile ground for envisioning places, spaces and societies. Australia as the Antipodal Utopia evaluates this complex intellectual history by mapping out how Western visions of Australia evolved from antiquity to the modern period. It argues that because of its antipodal relationship with Europe, Australia is imagined as a particular form of utopia – but since one person’s utopia is, more often than not, another’s dystopia, Australia’s utopian quality is both complex and highly ambiguous. Drawing on the rich field of utopian studies, Australia as the Antipodal Utopia provides an original and insightful study of Australia’s place in the Western imagination.

Book From Ricoeur to Action

Download or read book From Ricoeur to Action written by Todd S. Mei and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-03-29 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critical engagement with the philosophical, political, hermeneutic and theological aspects of Ricoeur's thinking in response to 21st-century problems of social and political conflict.