Controversial Discourse Research Articles

Thy Kiss of a Divine Nature: The Contemporary Perotin (review)

Reviewed by: Thy Kiss of a Divine Nature: The Contemporary Perotin Alicia M. Doyle Thy Kiss of a Divine Nature: The Contemporary Perotin. The Hilliard Ensemble. Directed by Uli Aumüller. [Munich]: ArtHaus Musik, 2005. 100 695. $45.99. This semiannual column presents reviews of significant video releases of interest to the field of music and to music libraries, as well as briefly noting other interesting titles. All genres of music in all video formats will be covered, with a preference given to those in DVD. All Web sites accessed 31 May 2006. Despite the fact that the Hilliard Ensemble is given top billing in the title, this really is not a performance DVD, but rather a more abstract film that addresses the way contemporary culture directly affects interpretation of Catholic dogma, art, architecture, and music. Director Uli Aumüller ties all of this together with one overarching thread: that performances of Pérotin historically have reflected the culture of the time of the performance and not the culture of the time of Pérotin. This unifying theme provides a creative springboard for Aumüller who presents a series of four separate narratives that are woven visually, aurally, and philosophically. The resulting film is one in which the performance of Pérotin's music clearly reflects the culture of the first years of the third millennium rather than the first years of the second. Aumüller, in following the unifying theme makes little attempt to create any sort of authentic context for the performance of two-, three-, and four-part French Gothic polyphony. The filming does not take place in the cathedral of Notre Dame, as would be expected, but instead in a variety of locations including Lübeck, Laon, Troyes, Schleswig, Pfullingen, Notre Dame, and St. Denis. The music itself is however performed in an authentic manner. The Hilliard Ensemble's performance of eight French polyphonic pieces from the 12th and 13th centuries serves as the cantus firmus to Aumüller's four-part narrative polyphony. The musical performances mostly take place in Lübeck, at the reconstructed St. Petri (the original building was destroyed in 1942), where the starkness and simplicity of the architecture contrasts beautifully with the ornate nature of the sung polyphony. Aumüller mentions in one of his commentaries on the second disc that the stark background of this edifice allows more imaginative freedom on the part of the listener as there is no visual ornament, but rather a blank canvas upon which the best decorator—the imagination, is provided the freedom to create. Despite the historically inaccurate performing venue, the musical performance of the Hilliard Ensemble is consistently impressive. Rhythmic animation drives their interpretation of the music, resulting in a lively, directional performance. This style of performance is of course representative of current musicological thought—that the music of the Ars Antiqua was a bit more animated, or "ecstatic" as mentioned in the film, rather than lugubrious and drawn out as was the performance norm for most of the 20th century. The second "voice" is a series of scenes from a heated scholarly symposium where historians of various disciplines discuss Pérotin and issues surrounding the culture in which his music was created. In this choreographed sequence of events, a mood of narrative tension is created through the presentation of intellectual prizefighting with the scholars constantly interrupting each other and promoting their own disparate viewpoints. The physical arrangement of the event is curiously in the choir of the cathedral, with the speaker standing in the center, between the two choir stalls. [End Page 164] At moments of controversial discourse, the seated listeners pound on the wood of the individual choir stalls voicing their support or dissent. Who said musicology wasn't a spectator sport? Informal, almost voyeuristic snippets of seemingly spontaneous conversation define the third narrative voice in the texture. The symposium scholars, as well as the choreographer Hans Kresnik and the two dancers, are "caught" discussing the issues of culture and performance while engaged in activities like grocery shopping, strolling through scenic landscapes or the halls of gothic cathedrals, and in backstage preparation. Lastly, a series of collaborations between historian Martin Burckhardt and...

A Church Divided: German Protestants Confront the Nazi Past

In this useful and informative study, Matthew Hockenos examines German Protestants' confrontations with the Nazi past in the early postwar period. Following an entire series of recent studies on postwar memory, Hockenos, too, disproves the long-held assumption that postwar Germans simply repressed the past. Instead, Hockenos unearths a comprehensive and often controversial Protestant discourse about the Nazi past. To be sure, Protestant memory, as this study makes clear, did not entail an “honest, open postwar discussion of the church's complacency and complicity in the face of Nazis' illegal, inhumane, and unchristian policies” (p. 10). Yet the significance of this book does not primarily consist of exposing rather unsurprising deficiencies of Protestant memories. More importantly, it reveals the considerable internal disagreements of a “divided Church” about the Nazi past, and it demonstrates the crucial significance of long-standing theological and doctrinal differences for shaping Protestant responses to the Nazi past.

Betrayal of Trust

Betrayal of Trust

Metodologiniai pilietinės visuomenės profiliai: pilietinė dorybė ir pilietinis visuomeniškumas

Straipsnyje, analizuojant pilietinės visuomenės sąvokos vartoseną, teigiama, kad reikia skirti, profesionalaus filosofinio diskurso vartotojo požiūriu, „techninį“ šios kategorijos vartosenos įvairumą (pilietinė visuomenė sensus stricto) nuo paprastesnės, grubesnės, apytikrės ar tiesiog instrumentinės šio termino prasmės (pilietinė visuomenė grosso modo). Straipsnyje bandoma pateikti darbinę ar instrumentinę šio teorinio konstrukto traktuotę atsiremiant į subendrintą „pilietinės dorybės“ ir „pilietinio visuomeniškumo“ tradicijų horizontą. Teigiama, kad adekvati pilietinės visuomenės sensus stricto samprata turėtų traktuoti pilietinę visuomenę kaip nuolat kintantį įvairių politinių ir socialinių judėjimų bei kontrjudėjimų darinį, daugiau ar mažiau vienijamą nuolat besikeičiančių fundamentaliųjų kultūrinių, politinių ir moralinių vertybių. Toks bendrų vertybių raizginys neturėtų būti suvoktas kaip sąrašas, kuriame išvardytos savybės būdingos visiems ar daugumai pilietinės visuomenės narių – jį veikiau reikėtų aprašyti L. Wittgensteino šeiminių panašumų koncepcijos terminais. Konkretesnė šios sąvokos prasmė visada priklausys nuo jos teorinės interpretacijos tam tikrame teorinio diskurso kontekste.

Mary Ashton Rice Livermore's Relational Feminist Discourse: A Rhetorically Successful Feminist Model

Mary Ashton Rice Livermore is one of few rights activists whose ideas were received enthusiastically by general public. Her success lies relational feminist stance and careful construction of six major strategies. Livermore's relational feminist model is framework for feminist rhetoric that challenges current discourse trends. Further, success negotiating tension between tradition and change demands that she be recognized as great orator of time. Until death 1905, Mary Ashton Rice Livermore arguably was America's best known and most famous speaker. Considered Queen of Platform (Blackwell, 1971, p. 236; Hanson, 1882, p. 131; Riegel, 1971, p. 412) and foremost America (Mary A Livermore Collection, Melrose Library; Riegel, 1963, p. 92), Livermore gave first speech 1861, traveled over 25,000 miles to deliver more than 150 speeches annually between 1870 and 1895 (Livermore, 1892), and was admired for moral logic, memory, humor, pathos, and charisma (Hanaford, 1883, p. 306). Although she spoke an era when brilliant platform speakers were common, there was no abler advocate of legal equality for and than Livermore herself (McCormick, 1913, p. 53). Her talent and eloquence were considered bulwark to reformers of generation and appearance in any town or city United States called out a concourse of delighted listeners (Thayer, 1896, p. 203). Her speeches were described as teeming with wit and brilliancy and logical to core (Mary A. Livermore Collection, Melrose Library). William Lloyd Garrison argued that Livermore's lectures swayed orators and audiences so that no matter what they became afterwards, they were converted to cause at moment (Garrison Family Papers, n.d.). Her critics and reviewers said she possessed peculiar magnetism... which singularly stole upon attention of audiences (Henshaw, 1868, p. 209). Even though audience's attitude was often polite indifference before lectures, ability to marshal fact after fact of scientific data from unquestionable authority revived audience interest into eagerness and responsiveness (Whiting, 1905, p. 1). The remarkable success of Livermore stands direct contrast to reception attending most other rights advocates. Unlike Livermore, outspoken feminist thinkers found it difficult to make their ideas persuasive to public (Conrad, 1976, p. 184). Margaret Fuller, for example, was described as a domineering, ugly with nasal voice, so repellent that most individuals did not wish to stay same room with her (Urbanski, 1980, p. 6); and Dr. Mary Walker, Civil War physician and dress reformer, was attacked by women who set bulldogs on streets (Seldes, 1928, p. 287). Even Elizabeth Cady Stanton was not immune to criticism; she was considered inexcusably self-important and holier than Thou (Hersh, 1978, p. 161), and was characterized by press as coarse, unrefined woman whose ideas were too indelicate to communicate (Noun, 1969, p. 183). Livermore is one of few rights activists whose ideas and presentations were received enthusiastically by general public. Consequently, she stands as model for effective feminist discourse--controversial discourse that nevertheless resonated with rather than alienated audiences. Over 25 years of speaking career, Livermore advocated relational feminism, form of feminism widely advocated by rights activists late 19th century (Boxer, 1982; Cott, 1986; Often, 1988).(1) According to Often (1988), relational feminism is grounded the seemingly paradoxical doctrine of `equality difference' and was dominant line of argument dispute over rights prior to 20th century (p. 139). Arguments in relational feminist tradition proposed gender-based but egalitarian vision of social organization, featured a companionate, non-hierarchical, male-female couple as basic unit of society, and emphasized women's rights as women (defined principally by their child bearing and/or nurturing capabilities) relation to men (Often, 1988, pp. …

Divine decadence: fascism, female spectacle, and the makings of Sally Bowles

As femme fatale, cabaret siren, and icon of Camp, the Christopher Isherwood character Bowles has become this century's darling of divine decadence--a measure of how much we are attracted by the fiction of the shocking British/American vamp in Berlin. Originally a character in a short story by Isherwood, published in 1939, Sally has appeared over the years in John Van Druten's stage play I Am a Camera, Henry Cornelius's film of the same name, and Joe Masteroff's stage musical and Bob Fosse's Academy Award-winning musical film, both entitled Cabaret. Linda Mizejewski shows how each successive repetition of the tale of the showgirl and the male writer/scholar has linked the young man's fascination with more closely to the fascination of fascism. In every version, political difference is read as sexual difference, fascism is disavowed as secretly female or homosexual, and the hero eventually renounces both and the corruption of the coming regime. Mizejewski argues, however, that the historical and political aspects of this story are too specific--and too frightening--to explain in purely psychoanalytic terms. Instead, Divine Decadence examines how each text engages particular cultural issues and anxieties of its era, from postwar Momism to the Vietnam War. Bowles as the symbol of wild Weimar or Nazi eroticism represents history from within the grid of many other controversial discourses, including changing theories of fascism, the story of Camp, vicissitudes of male homosexual representations and discourses, and the relationships of these issues to images of female sexuality. To Mizejewski, the Bowles adaptations end up duplicating the fascist politics they strain to condemn, reproducing the homophobia, misogyny, fascination for spectacle, and emphasis of sexual difference that characterized German fascism.Originally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.