Modern Criticism Research Articles

Art criticism: modern aspects

The article attempts to identify the main goals facing modern criticism as an art of judgment and understanding of the essence of the spiritual through a subjective interpretation of the state of the world. Also, the main reasons and problems that art criticism is currently facing, are comprehended. Since art criticism is a science, and its identification begins to be carried out in the “art history – criticism” system, representing a triad: “art history − art theory − art criticism”, and the practice of criticism is firmly connected with the creative activity of a person, it can be considered as a kind of cultural phenomenon.

Who is (Not) Afraid of the Climate Apocalypse? On the Planetary Perspectives of Anthropocene Political Theology through New Images of the Earth

The paper comparatively explores the projects of Gaia and the planet as the new images of the Earth, proposed by Bruno Latour and Dipesh Chakrabarty respectively. With critical emphasis placed on the political theology of the apocalypse present in both projects, the paper draws broader implications of such a geospiritual turn in the Anthropocene debates. Whereas the introduction gives a glimpse into the problem of the Anthropocene, the second section explores Latour's reinterpretation of the “Gaia Hypothesis” in the anti-holistic key through the critique of modernity, theory of agency and novel methodology of geotracing, designed to unravel the organic transactions and links of the so-called critical zone. The third section discusses Latour's geophilosophical experiment of building the mythical prototype of the Earthlings, as a special kind of ecological sensitivity, and points out the problem of setting up science as a new earthly religion. Section four focuses on Chakrabarty's concept of the planet, which revolves around the “discovery” of the deep history of the planet, a confrontation with anthropocentrism and the “shallow” history of human formations, but also the insertion of radical climate uncertainty into everyday life and restoration of planetary habitability. In the fifth section we explain in more detail the problem of scale that arises in Chakrabarty's work, that is, the question of how to open sensibility for such a cumbersome set of entities as the planet is. Expressing a relative distrust of science, Chakrabarty prefers to opt for theological awe, which, we claim, is difficult to achieve precisely in a planetary context. In the conclusion we look briefly at the concept of resilience as a potential complement to these views.

Mary Chilton Callaway. Jeremiah Through the Centuries

Mary Chilton Callaway. <i>Jeremiah Through the Centuries</i>

Darian R. Lockett. Letters for the Church: Reading James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude as Canon

Darian R. Lockett. <i>Letters for the Church: Reading James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude as Canon</i>

Augusto Del Noce and Eric Voegelin on the eidos of History: A Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACT In his critique of Modernity and the modern Gnosis, the prominent Italian Catholic philosopher Augusto Del Noce was particularly influenced by Eric Voegelin’s use of the two concepts in his political theory. The aim of this article is to present the various aspects of the idea of history proposed by Voegelin followed by Del Noce’s response and interpretation of them in order to show the similarities and differences between their views. More specifically, the comparison between Voegelin and Del Noce centers on the question of the eidos or “form” of history and on the difference, important for Del Noce, between ancient and modern Gnosis.

“Modern neurotic women” and the pains of childbirth: staging medicalized maternity in Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal

ABSTRACT This article positions Sophie Treadwell’s depiction of maternity and hospital-based childbirth in Machinal (1928) as a crucial though underexplored dimension of the expressionistic play’s feminist social critique. Our argument focuses on the fourth of nine episodes, “Maternal,” and reads the protagonist’s traumatic postpartum experience alongside and in the context of contemporary media, medical, and literary publications that articulate emerging concerns about childbirth, maternity, and obstetric care. We illustrate how characters’ responses to the Young Woman’s intense distress resonate with a prevalent medical trend to either dismiss women’s anxieties about the risks and pain associated with childbirth or diagnose them as symptoms of modern women’s “weakness” or “nervous exhaustion.” Treadwell stages an argument that at once affirms the legitimacy of women’s potential fears and challenges the notion of mental-uplift as a panacea for maternal anxiety. Furthermore, through the scene’s medical figures and sonic backdrop, she presents a scathing portrait of institutionalized obstetric care. This scene reinforces the broader critique of modern, patriarchal hierarchies and their embeddedness in technological discourses that runs throughout Machinal. The postpartum scenario offers a unique vantage point to expose how intimate and institutional structures combine in ways both physically and psychologically damaging to women.

Kant on the future of representative democracy

Kant’s Staatsrecht in his “Metaphysics of Morals” likely represents the sharpest analysis and critique of democratic modernity after 1789. At the same time, it provides a unique outlook on the future of modern representative democracy. This has gone largely unnoticed, with scholars often lamenting the problematic nature of the late text, blamed either on the author’s supposed senility or on the inscrutable composition resulting from confusion during the printing process. Rather than affirming these readings, I will argue that they are merely attempts to wrestle with the brilliance of Kant’s philosophical rhetoric. Through a new reading of a key passage in the Staatsrecht, I substantiate this claim by reconstructing Kant’s late account of repres- entative democracy and its future.

Freud on war and violence

This article analyses Sigmund Freud’s reflections on war and violence, especially in his two main works on this issue: Thoughts for the Time of War and Death (1915) and Why War? (1932). After presenting these two essays and placing them in their historical contexts, I briefly review what authors have written about them in recent years. I then attempt to contribute something new to the discussion by examining four of Freud’s propositions: his justification for disillusionment caused by war; his suspicion about peoples and states; his denunciation of the primitivism and hypocrisy of human beings; and his determination to maintain hope in culture and history. I consider these key points of Freud’s essays separately, showing their importance for Freud’s social theory and for his critique of modernity and civilisation in general.

Mothers and Melancholia: Sacrifice in Søren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling

Abstract The article examines sacrifice in Søren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. I argue that in order to understand the meaning of sacrifice in this work, we have to account for the four poetic images of a weaning mother – often overlooked by commentators – that we find in the section entitled “Attunement”. I show that we can make sense of the images once we situate them within the context of Kierkegaard’s (or his pseudonyms’) broader critique of modernity, autonomous subjectivity, and the loss of premodern forms of authority. On my interpretation, for Kierkegaard, sacrifice entails a rupture of a communal bond; yet his pseudonyms explore both secular and religious ways of responding to such a rupture. Finally I argue that while Fear and Trembling ultimately offers no clear solutions, the story Kierkegaard conveys to us – a story about sacrifice, mourning, and mothering – can inspire us to reflect on the modern condition.

On drawing, in an interlocking game

In 1997 Guido Canella, professor of Theories and techniques of architectural design at the Faculty of Civil Architecture of Milan Bovisa, held a lecture on drawing in Architecture. The Wednesday lessons had become the central moment of the newborn School that Canella had helped to found: an event that attracted the interest of students and the curiosity of teachers from other disciplines in the confirmation that the project is the central moment of training in Architecture. Taking as a pretext the various types of drawing, in a narrow interspersed between text and image, as befits a university lesson, Canella leads the reader on a journey through architecture that dates back Baudelairian "from impressions to principles". It is no coincidence that Canella calls into question the "true founder of modern criticism" who as an architect, teacher, director of important magazines, received in 1995 the CICA prize (Comité lnternational des Critiques d'Architecture) at the VI Bienal Internacional de Arquitectura de Buenos Aires.

Chapter Two: Lu Xun's Mytho-ecological Refutation of Technocrats

Abstract Primarily thought of as a critic of Chinese tradition, Lu Xun is less understood as a critic of technoscientific rationality. Walter Benjamin invoked the utopian reconciliation of humans and nature from premodern culture in critiques of modernity. In the same vein, Lu Xun recovered images of the ancient world where rural folks lived in intimacy with nature, worshiped supernatural beings, and observed time-honored rituals. Linking the myth of progress and technology to a chorus of “malevolent voices” by a “hypocrite gentry,” Lu Xun urged that we should rid of ourselves of this hypocrite gentry and retain mytho-ecological beliefs. Examining Lu Xun's stories from Old Tales Retold, this chapter explores the Chinese writer's recovery of the mythical and ecological images from the past in his critique of technocratic modernity. Confronted with the myth of progress, technological fetishism, and the rise of a technocratic elite, Lu Xun sought to uncover and redeem primordial images from archaic traditions.

The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chicago: A Complicated Story of the Search for Lithuanian Identity

Summary The article examines the complicated history of the search for Lithuanian identity in the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chicago. After leaving their homeland in the aftermath of World War II, the Lithuanian community struggled to maintain its national identity under difficult conditions of emigration. The search for a Lithuanian architectural character became an important part of this political task. Based on a case study, a church near Chicago’s densely populated Marquette Park in Lithuania, the text analyzes the Lithuanian community’s debate about the cultural and political mission of Lithuanian architecture in exile, and the way to express it. Although the concept of the national style had already emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, post-war technological progress and the unfamiliar context of emigration brings additional questions to the subject. The article argues that historical reminiscences in the church are more an ethical than an aesthetic choice. This approach embodies the specific cultural expectations of the community and is, at least partially, in line with the critique of modernism from regionalist point of view.

Open Form in American Poetry: Essays by Burton Hatlen. Ed. Bruce Holsapple. U of Maine P, 2021. 309 pp. plus seven color plates. ISBN 978-0-89101-131-6. $28.00.

<i>Open Form in American Poetry: Essays</i> by Burton Hatlen. Ed. Bruce Holsapple. U of Maine P, 2021. 309 pp. plus seven color plates. ISBN 978-0-89101-131-6. $28.00.

AUTOPSY AND DIDACTIC AUTHORITY: RETHINKING THE PROLOGUE OF THE PERIODOS TO NICOMEDES

AbstractAll modern critics have read verses 128–36 of Pseudo-Scymnus’ iambic Periodos to Nicomedes (c.133–110/109 b.c.e.) as a description of the personal autopsies of the author. However, close analysis of both the literary dynamics of the poem and the syntax of the lacunose text that precedes this passage shows that this cannot be the case. This article proposes that Timaeus of Tauromenium (c.350–260 b.c.e.) is a superior candidate for the referent of these lines, and offers a coherent approach to emending the manifestly corrupt text. This reinterpretation makes better sense of the extant text of the Periodos, and allows these verses to be read as a second-century witness to Timaeus’ autoptic prowess.

The Image of a Brutal Bull in Three Pre-Islamic Poems Reality, or Legendary

This study aims to look into the significance of the image of a brutal bull in the pre-Islamic poem which did not find great attention among the ancient critics. In modern criticism, the study concluded that the legendary critical approach does not assist us in understanding the real significance of this image. Since he omits to link some semantics and legendary religious sediments, he gives an unsatisfied interpretation. The study supposed that it is more beneficial to look at that image realistically, and to monitor how the poet portrayed this reality as an artistic portrayal of his main idea, which is popular in all parts of the poem. To confirm this assumption, three poems’ pre-Islamic construction were applied, by three poets, and it appeared obvious that the scene of the brutal bull in each of them consisted of other scenes of it. The partial scene heals in the poem building, which expresses the objective of the poet and his central issue.

Beyond the reactionary sea change: Antimodern thought, American politics and political science

This article examines the migration of reactionary antimodern thought from Europe to the United States of America. It assesses the impact that the work of two antimodern thinkers, Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin, had on two distinct domains of American thought, namely, conservative political ideology and academic political science. The paper argues that the antimodern perspective, eagerly absorbed by many intellectuals, has pushed American conservatism not only in an anti-liberal, but also in an antidemocratic direction. On the other hand, in academic political science, Strauss's and Voegelin's critiques of modernity, though certainly audible and noted, were neither taken seriously nor confronted in depth by the mainstream of the discipline. This neglect should be corrected, I contend, for contemporary political science is in need of a mature and nuanced theory of modernity that is capable of rising up to the radical challenge of the antimoderns.

:Modernism’s Metronome: Meter and Twentieth-Century Poetics

:<i>Modernism’s Metronome: Meter and Twentieth-Century Poetics</i>

Sensation and the City: Charlotte Riddell’s George Geith and the Emergence of the Sensation Genre

Charlotte Riddell’s George Geith of Fen Court was published in 1864, just after Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, Ellen Wood’s East Lynne, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret seemed to initiate the sensation genre. It features adultery, bigamy, false identities, forgery, illegitimacy, and a fake pregnancy, and Riddell is often referred to as a sensation author by modern critics. However, George Geith resists easy categorisation as a sensation novel and Riddell was frequently compared with George Eliot, a respected realist author. Riddell uses sensational plots in a way that managed to avoid George Geith being castigated as a sensation novel by reviewers, but that allowed her to convey some transgressive notions about marriage and to further her agenda to make the City of London and its hardworking businessmen viable fictional subjects. In undertaking this analysis of George Geith this article suggests that one new direction for sensation studies is to reconsider why certain authors (such as Riddell) have been classed as sensational, and by doing so revisit the criteria that have been used to identify sensation fiction (including plot, tone, and reputation) then and now.

The Hamidi Kashmiri as Critic of Ghalib

Hamidi Kashmiri is a Modern critic of Urdu literature specially Urdu Ghazal. He has studied Ghalib's thought and art with the critical insight and has recovered Ghalib's intellectual sources very well. Hamidi Kashmiri first book on Ghalib is “Ghalib kay Takhleeqi sarchasmay” that is publised in 1969. “Iqbal aur Ghalib” and “Ghalib Jahan-i-Deegar” are his two more books in which he discussed Ghalib;s poetry. In these books, qualitative, thematic, technical and stylistic reviews of Kalam-i-Ghalib have been presented. In this article Hamidi kashmiri;s views about Ghalib’s poetry has been presented.

Borderline Bir Eyleme Vurum Savunması Olarak Aşırı Film/Dizi İzleme: Klinik Bir Olgu Sunumu Üzerinden Sinemaya Çok Yönlü Psikolojik Bakış

Psikoterapi insanların kendilerini tanıdıkları, keşfettikleri ve değiştirdikleri ruhsal sağaltım mekanizmalarının işlediği bir tedavidir. Psikoterapi 20. asrın çocuğudur ve yaklaşık yüz yıldan beri de sürekli gelişmekte, yenilenmekte ve zenginleşmektedir. Bu çalışmada, bir psikoterapi vakasının psikoterapi süreci çerçevesinde psikolojinin sinemaya bakışı, sinemanın/dizilerin nasıl bir borderline eyleme vurum savunması olabileceği, postmodern insanın içine düştüğü varoluşsal buhranın ve bunaltının aşılmasında sinemanın nasıl bir psikolojik mekanizmayla aracı bir fonksiyon yüklenebileceği ele alınmıştır. Çalışmada yer alan psikodinamik kuramlar çerçevesinde (Masterson terapisi) yapılan klinik değerlendirmeyle şizoidi savunmaları olan uzaklaşmacı borderline teşhisi olan “Samyeli” vakası temel odağımızdır. Bu kişinin psikoterapi süreci yaklaşık 2 yıl sürmüştür. Samyeli’nin sağaltımında Masterson terapisinin kuramsal ve teknik aygıtları kullanılmıştır. Vakanın terapi süreci sonlandığında ise bu vakanın sadece erken bebeklik ve çocukluk deneyimlerinin dinamikleriyle değerlendirilmeyecek kadar multifaktöriyel bir çeşitlilik barındırdığı, çağ insanının varoluşsal ve sosyopsikolojik sorunlarına ışık tuttuğu ve hatta sinemapsikolojik açıdan da oldukça derin ve zengin dinamikler barındırdığı anlaşılmıştır. Bu sayılan sebeplerden ötürü de vaka sunumunda her ne kadar bu kişinin terapi süreci Masterson kuramının dinamikleriyle anlatılıp daha çok sinema/dizi konuları bir eyleme vurum savunması olarak ele alınacak olsa da aslında dolaylı olarak değinilecek konularda sinema ve psikoterapi ilişkisinden, sinemanın pozitif psikolojik, varoluşsal ve klinik etki mekanizmalarından, nesne ilişkileri temelli deterministik kuramlarla modernite eleştirisi üzerinden zemin bulan ve kıta felsefesinin ilham üflediği varoluşçu kuramların insanı ve sorunlarını anlamada nasıl bir tamamlayıcılık ve bütünsellik çerçevesinde birleştirilebileceği gibi konular üzerinde de durulacaktır.