Renaissance Culture Research Articles

SUFISM AS A TURKISH RENAISSANCE

The Turkish Sufis, who created the Turkish Renaissance for centuries, should also be called Turkish philosophers. They take a human-centered religion and worldview as their main point of departure. In their humanistic approach, Islam has been adapted to Anatolian Turkish culture. Because Turkish Sufism is the practical view of Turkish philosophy in Anatolia. In addition, every Turkish philosopher has taken a philosopher, a philosophical system or a gnostic view from the ancient times and the Islamic world as a guide. From Ahmed Yesevi to Otman Baba, the Turkish Sufism tradition combined and reinterpreted Islam with all cultures that lived in Anatolia, creating a Turkish-style world view. It is imperative to understand this four-hundred-year period in shaping the way the Turks view people, life and existence. Turkish Sufism is also the proof of the fact why the history of the Turks should be based on centuries before Islam, when viewed from the perspective of philosophy of history. Thus, historically, culturally and religiously, Turkish Sufism, Islam that started with Farabi, refers to an original Renaissance, not a transition period between the Western Renaissance that started in Italy three years later. A Republic culture that keeps faith and secularism in consensus for the two worlds has taken its spiritual inspiration from the Renaissance culture of Turkish Sufism philosophy.

‘The Wife Would Put on a Nice Suit, Hat, and Possibly Gloves’: The Misogynistic Identity Politics of Anders Behring Breivik

Abstract By analysing the anti-feminist and misogynistic narratives in Anders Behring Breivik’s compendium 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, this article argues that Breivik’s counterjihadist worldview can be located both as a permutation of ‘generic fascism’ and as a form of nonegalitarian ‘identity politics’. First, the article reframes and reformulates Nancy Fraser’s concept of identity politics, as it sets Breivik’s ideology in relation to her theory of a ‘politics of recognition’, arguing that her theories – originally developed to analyse left-wing politics – can be used to identify how questions of identity are at the centre of the dynamics of Breivik’s far-right ideology. The article then goes on to demonstrate how Breivik’s misogynist narratives are plotted into a broader fascist conception of history, where the alleged feminised and Islamised present is described as an estrangement from a glorious past dominated by white, European men. As a result, Breivik’s futural palingenetic vision of a ‘European cultural renaissance’ is not only going to resurrect a white, homogenous, ‘Christian’ society, but also restore patriarchy.

The Essence and Path of the Contemporary Chinese Cultural Renaissance

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that the continuous creation of new brilliance of Chinese culture, thus establishing the path of the contemporary Chinese cultural renaissance. Based on the governance of the country and the development of the world, the revival of contemporary Chinese culture is an inevitable requirement for the governance of China, the orientation of Chinese values, and the provision of Chinese wisdom to the world. Deeply understand the spiritual essence of the contemporary Chinese cultural renaissance, grasp its specific meaning, understand the essence of the new glory of Chinese culture, strengthen cultural self‐confidence in practice, adhere to the Chinese cultural position, enhance cultural strategic thinking, and stimulate cultural innovation of the Chinese nation Create vitality and strengthen the cultural leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

Mudrci či králi? Vplyv konfesionálnej príslušnosti na inscenácie barokových školských hier

School plays, the heritage of the Renaissance, were an important means of education the Baroque era in Catholic and Protestant settings. In addition to a number of common elements of Renaissance culture, it naturally worked with confessional potential. It could be argued that the school plays served to express it. In the field of education, a kind of intellectual battle arena was being created in the setting of school theatre during the Counter­-Reformation, where prestige in a noble style was decided upon. The performances of both the Protestant and the Catholic camps, to express their own religious and cultural wealth, are worthy of admiration. I deal in the present study with the specific theme of the representation of the centuries­-old tradition of making a vow by three sages/kings on the school scene in the second half of the seventeenth century in Upper Hungary, with the question as to whether or not the given confessions left their mark in the presentation itself, and if so, in what shape. The essentials texts were: Periocha of the school play from the Catholic setting Magnes Amoris Divini = The Attraction of God’s Love from the SpiĹĄskĂĄ Kapitula (1650) with regard to the Moravian declamation play Declamatio Genethliaca de Jesu Christo Recens Nato = Birthday Declamation about the New­-Born Christ (seventeenth century) and complete records of three school declamation plays from the Protestant setting: Ein zweifacher poetischer Act… = Double Poetic Act… from PreĹĄov (1651), Lusus Scholasticus = Rhetorical Play from Ilava (1653) and Jesus Desiderium et Delicium Piorum = Jesus Desire and Enjoyment of the Pious from the PreĹĄov provenience (1667?‒1673).

Colonial Rupture and Native Continuity in Indigenous Cultural Representations: Through Hawaiian Ancient Dance Kahiko

AbstractThis article discusses the role of colonial oppression in creating conflicting perspectives in the reproduction of dance as Indigenous cultural heritage. The debate on kahiko, the ancient Hawaiian dance, of which practice was severely controlled and then revived through the cultural renaissance, demonstrates that the radical deprivation of the practice has created multiple understandings of the dance among different practitioners. Of primary importance in these respects is the intergenerational divide within the dance community, manifest in the critical perspective of the post-renaissance variant of kahiko, which highlights the “continuity” of the practice through the colonial rupture.

К вопросу о взаимодействии чувашской и азербайджанской культур: древность и современность

In the development of modern ethnic cultures, there is a paradoxical situation: the more powerful the onset of comprehensive globalization, aimed at the destruction of national cultures, the more actively they develop. “To blame”, in our opinion, is the ethnocultural code, which rebelled against the dominance of the virus of the death of national cultures and thus led to the flourishing, boom of ethnic cultures. Convincing evidence of this is the deep fundamental processes of revival taking place in the Chuvash national culture. Thus, the unique Kokelev International Plein Air has rightfully become a synthesis of the picturesque national schools of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The national TV and radio company “Chavash En” was established. Recreated “Chuvashkino”, designed to develop their national culture. There is a return from oblivion of the runic writing of the Chuvash people. A program for the development of the Chuvash language was adopted. And, as it were, the apotheosis of the renaissance of the Chuvash ethnic culture was the establishment of the Chuvash Embroidery Day on November 26 by the Decree of the Head of the Chuvash Republic. Globalization pressure is also causing an increase in interest in learning about other cultures. we tell about this phenomenon on the example of Chuvashia and Azerbaijan. In soviet times in Azerbaijan, few people knew that the Chuvash were a Turkic people. Tatarstan knew, Bashkortostan knew, and the Chuvash – the Turkic people – didn't [6]. The aim of our work is to study the interaction of Chuvash and Azerbaijani cultures in historical retrospect, as well as to draw the attention of scientists of Chuvashia, Russia and Azerbaijan to this problem, which is of great cognitive and scientific importance. The author comes to the conclusion that scientists-humanitarians of Chuvashia, Russia and Azerbaijan can and should combine their efforts to create a comprehensive study of the interaction of the cultures of the Chuvash and Azerbaijani nations in historical retrospect.

Cultural transitions and dialogues in the Great Silk road area: experience in preventing cultural deviations

History shows that the Great Silk Road and the Islamic Renaissance were the factors that influenced the civilizational turn from cultural anomalies in the nomads of Central Asia.  If settled cultures occupied the space and divided it, the nomads themselves were divided in space. The deviant division between nomadism and stable agricultural cultures began to be resolved through cultural dialogue in the phenomenon of the Great Silk Road.  The purpose of the article is to analyze the experience of the Great Silk Road in solving deviant anomalies between settled (dihanic-irrigation) and nomadic cultures formed in Central Asia.    This gave the Turkic peoples the opportunity to exchange great cultures and innovations at the global level. Scientists such as Avicenna, Biruni, Firdousi, Khayyam, Khorezmi, Rudaki, Rashid-ad-Din, Ulugbek, Saadi, Al-Farabi and Balasagun were born on the caravan roads, which opened the doors of great achievements for humanity. Along the Great Silk Road through Central Asia, the works of Aristotle, Plato and Hippocrates, which remained under the European medieval restrictions, «survived» and developed. The geopolitical role of Central Asia in the history of mankind is great, it served as a link between the differences and cultural deviation between the Roman and steppe, Turkic and Iranian, Arab and Chinese empires from antiquity to the Middle Ages. According to Arnold Toynbee, in the area of the Great Silk Road, "it is not difficult to see that this place, where the giant Turkic empire flourished and lived, was the center of future civilizations or one civilization."  In Central Asia, a cultural renaissance flourished in the area of the Great Silk Road, and the basis for future modern knowledge was formed. Key words: The Great Silk Road, cultural dialogue, cultural deviation, nomadism, settlement, civilization, cultural transitions.

The Contribution of the Griot Kulba Baaba Seebeeri to Cultural Renaissance in Niger

This paper is an analysis of the heroic songs of the griot Kulba Baaba from Niger. It aims at contributing to promote culture, especially the Songhay-Zarma one, through cultural Renaissance in Niger. It puts emphasis on the respect of the principles of the constitution by encouraging the Nigerien citizen to have certain moral values such as courage, dignity, and loyalty. Its core focus is to show that oral literature can be one of the means to sensitize the Nigerien citizen to a change of mentality for the well-being of the nation.

Marian Literary Culture: Petrarch and the Rapprochement of Cultures

The history of the English reception of Petrarch’s works is one that has been told without reference to the reign of Queen Mary. This is despite the fact that a history of Marian literary culture cannot be told without reference to Petrarch. Indeed, the English Petrarch had a distinctively Marian phase that manifested itself in three works, two in print and one in manuscript. These are: Tottel’s Miscellany, Henry Parker, Lord Morley’s Tryumphes, and William Forrest’s The Seconde Grisilde. All three appearing during Queen Mary’s short reign, and as products of a particular moment, these works point to a specific idea of Marian literary culture that sought to deliver Petrarch from a less worthy Henrician age. Henry VIII’s sexual and political excesses were sharply criticised at this time, and the moralizing and philosophising Petrarch assumed fresh importance as a model for this critique. Petrarch’s example was therefore also central to a broader cultural renaissance that was both Marian and Catholic, and that helped to establish in poetry what the Marian return to Rome established in politics and religion: a rapprochement of cultures. [O.W.]

Una interpretación simbólica del Arco de don Pedro Manuel en la Catedral de León

The so called Bishop Pedro Manuel's arch, in the Cathedral of León, has a rich iconographical decoration, made up mainly by grotesques. The symbolic interpretation of these ornaments, based on the meanings that the neoplatonic philosophy and the Renaissance culture assigned them, reveals the existence of a coherent dimension of meaning that allows to read the whole arch as a iconic exaltation of the humanistic personality of the "mecenas"(patron), specially of his belief on the eternal life, granted at the same time by his Christian faith, and by a probable trust on the neoplatonic ideas.

Ethnocultural and business organizations of the Korean diaspora in Kazakhstan (1991-2020)

Sociocultural processes that have taken place over the past three decades in the former Soviet republics are in the limelight of political, economic, and historical research. The Korean diaspora of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the object of particular interest, as it reflects the essence of the national political course and the level of development of democratic institutions in the country. Special attention is given to ethnocultural and business diasporic organizations and institutions of the Kazakh Koreans. The period from 1991 to 2020 demonstrates fruitful activity of the diaspora in the area of ethnic policy, establishment of domestic and international business relations. The last 30 years mark the renaissance of national culture of the Koreans in Kazakhstan due to the work of the Korean theater, performance groups, and educational centers across the country. This article discusses the following questions: institutionalization of the Korean diaspora in Kazakhstan; special role of the institutions in preservation of the centers of ethnic culture; impact of the activity of diasporic structures upon the relations with the state and historical homeland; functional role of ethnic organizations in socialization of the members of the diaspora and their advancement in the economic and political spheres. The answers to these questions define the relevance and novelty of this research in studying the problems of historical and national development of the new independent states of the post-Soviet region.

Distributed Cognition in Medieval and Renaissance Culture. Miranda Anderson and Michael Wheeler, eds. The Edinburgh History of Distributed Cognition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019. xii + 364 pp. + color pls. £125.

Distributed Cognition in Medieval and Renaissance Culture. Miranda Anderson and Michael Wheeler, eds. The Edinburgh History of Distributed Cognition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019. xii + 364 pp. + color pls. £125. - Volume 74 Issue 2

HUMORNA METAFORA U „DEKAMERONU“: NOVELA O ALIBEH I RUSTIKU

The subject of this paper is the „putting devil into hell” humorous metaphor from the tenth novel of the third day in Boccacio’s Decameron. The main methodological basis for the analysis is the conceptual integration theory by Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier (1994), as well as proposed supplements to the model (Coulson & Oakley 2005; Hedblom, Kutz, Neuhaus 2015). The author points out that to read Boccacio’s novel in a christian-moralistic manner also means to interpret the given metaphor as a double-scope network. The second possibility is to read the story in the spirit of carnivalesque logic, through understanding the metaphor as a single-scope network. In accordance with Mikhail Bakhtin’s hypothesis that the folk culture of the Middle Ages is embedded into the renaissance culture, the author concludes that Boc- cacio’s metaphor must be interpreted as the metaphor of the latter type, since that this type of reading is in accordance with the textual strategies of the piece.

Язык Адама, кризис познания и «радикальные истины» Джона Ди

The life and work of John Dee (1527–1608/9), an English mathematician, eru­dite and occultist, remains an enigma that gives rise to intensive controversies, puzzles scholars, and nourishes imagination of mass culture makers. The aim of the article is to consider a magical practice of the late Dee and a unique narrative recorded in his diaries, in a context of the intellectual situation of that epoch. The analysis is concentrated on a role of those practice and narrative in dialectics of the search for the perfect language which took place in the West in 15th–17th cc. A technical facet of crystallomancy and its standing in the Renaissance culture as well as conditions and motives urging Dee to invest his years in practicing the magic of that kind. A special attention is paid to the course and results of re­vealing of the primordial tongue by the ‘angels’ and to the Adamic myth that accompanied the linguistic material and informed of substance, functions, and historical fate of Ursprache. It is argued that despite its reprehensibility crystal­lomancy took a relatively high cultural status and a wide spreading. Dee became its convinced adept due to a deep inner crisis caused by eschatological anxiety, collapse of traditional epistemology, and discontent with his previous intellectual initiatives. As spirits claimed, the language that they were imparting to him con­nected the protoplasts with God and angels in Eden and served Adam as a per­fect instrument of knowledge and magic. Explaining his lasting failure of com­prehending of the revealed language the spirits persuaded Dee that it was not time yet for activation of its potencies but that it was very near though known only to God. That time had never come in the magician’s life. Nonetheless, glad­ness of (seeming) communication with the ‘angels’ compensated for bitterness of futile expectations.

Western Influences on the Socio-Cultural Institutions of the Bendi

With focus on the family, marriage, age-grade, chieftaincy, music and dance, this paper examines aspects of Bendi history and culture from pre-colonial times to the present, pin-pointing the impact of western influences on the people’s life ways. It is argued here that the Bendi need to revive aspects of their culture in order for them to regain their lost glory. This is imperative because sustainable development as a positive socio-economic change does not take place in a cultural vacuum. Deliberate effort must be taken to stem the tide of the uncritical, undiscriminating swallowing of the otherwise dispensable influences of western civilization and the culturally strangulating elements of Judaic-Christianity in the area. The situation in Bendi compels us to take Onwuka Njoku’s admonition seriously: “One menacing challenge which increases by the day and which younger historians have to confront is that raging monster called globalization. Globalisation is increasingly contracting the world into a village and customising and panel-beating everything on its way according to Western values and ways of life. No country can sensibly escape the contagion and the key question is how to remain truly African even amidst the ruffle and tumble of globalization.” Bendi needs a cultural renaissance that can refocus her vision of the future. If this is not done, the community will be a victim, rather than a beneficiary of globalization.

«Нищета — это порок» и «Кому на Руси жить хорошо»: несправедливость и сострадание у Некрасова и Достоевского

The historical and hermeneutic dialogue between Nekrasov and Dostoevsky acquires special significance as an opportunity for a new dialogue between believers and non-believers, which is necessary for general social and cultural development. Nekrasov was actually a believing Christian, but he received a lot of resonance in Soviet education as a bearer of secular ideals. His new consideration today, after the religious renaissance of Russian culture, is an interesting and promising task. At the same time, Dostoevsky's question of «eschatological antinomianism» turns out to be decisive also in this context: the need to sanctify suffering and the necessary hope for its overcoming are two sides of the same ontological and epistemological paradox, which is always valid for all Christians as well as for all thinkers, preoccupied by common human destinies.

A New Historicist Reading of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Representation of Roman History in Light of Renaissance Culture and History

William Shakespeare borrows extensively from Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (1579) in the drama Julius Caesar (1599). At the same time, Shakespeare adapts, manipulates and reworks historical facts to accommodate his Elizabethan surroundings. In this paper, the play Julius Caesar is analyzed in reference to its historical source, Plutarch’s The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans, and within the theoretical framework of New Historicism. A review was conducted of various studies pertaining to the historical background of the play Julius Caesar. Some of these researches focus on the similarities and differences between Shakespeare’s play and Plutarch’s historical narrative while other sources highlight aspects of the play which are characteristic of Elizabethan thought rather than Roman culture. The general approach in this research has been a comparative one; a scene by scene correlation was carried out between the play on one hand and Plutarch’s historical account of the circumstances surrounding the assassination of the Roman ruler on the other. Furthermore, this research briefly touches upon Shakespeare’s motives for making historical modifications. Such motives include dramatic economy, theatrical effects and factors relating to the playwright’s contemporary matters.

Learning from The Falls (túath na bhFál) and Bombay Street Project (architect Seán Mackel), Belfast: urban reflections from the most divided and resilient streets in Western Europe.

This paper examines the Falls Road (located in West Belfast) which is a largely Catholic/Irish Republican neighbourhood particularly relevant during the conflict known as The Troubles, which affected Northern Ireland for some forty years from the late 1960s until 1998. During this period and to this day, Falls Road became the heart of Irish republicanism and the most divided street in Western Europe. The human cost of the conflict was more than 3,500 dead. On the other side of the wall is the other street, the Shankhill Road (Protestant and Unionist). This gives a clear picture of the impact of the conflict in the context of street life before The Troubles began. The Falls Road in West Belfast, which runs from Divis Street to Andersonstown, derives from the expression túath na bhFál, which in Irish means “territory of the enclosures”. I have worked as an architect and researcher for over a decade in the city on both sides of the wall. This paper examines the typology of the divided street and its transition into a successful example of Irish renaissance culture and urban regeneration. The paper is divided into two parts in which the Falls Strip will be dissected:1x The Falls (lower part of the street), 2-Bombay Street (architect Seán Mackel). I will use Manuel de Solà-Morales’ approach to the construction of this street in Belfast as an “urban city of conflict”, as a succession of episodes, data, dates, facts, details and events and interpretations and the opening of the street in this case to understand the lessons that can be drawn from a clear typological study of the street in two sections.

‘Who is this Renaissance? Where did he come from?’: Englishness and the Search for an American National Style, 1850–1900

ABSTRACTThe identification of the American elite with the Renaissance in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, as seen in the extended Capitol Building and National Mall in Washington DC, can be traced back to architectural, historiographical and cultural trends taking place in Britain. The writings of John Ruskin, Walter Pater and John Addington Symonds framed the debate in the United States. At first Ruskin’s antipathy towards the Renaissance was exacerbated by the Nativist Party’s opposition to Catholic immigration, but then the writings of Pater and, particularly, Symonds achieved what Wallace K. Ferguson described as ‘the thorough naturalization of Renaissancism in the English-speaking world’. Symonds’s Hegelian interpretation of the historical era as a ‘spirit of self-conscious freedom’ enabled Americans from the 1870s onwards to post-rationalise the Renaissance as a national style. Symonds dethroned the Ruskinian cult of the Gothic and celebrated Renaissance classicism and secular individualism. His image of Italian despots as ‘self-made men of commerce’ and an ‘aristocracy of genius and character’ appealed to US capitalists, while his admiration for the sumptuous palaces built by these Renaissance ‘men of power’ reinforced the evolutionary theories of the British sociologist Herbert Spencer, whose principle of ‘the survival of the fittest’ became the creed of American plutocrats as they built their own palatial houses. Finally, his frequent references to the discovery of America by Columbus came to legitimise the image of the US as the heir of Renaissance culture, as proclaimed at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.

Issues of man and humanism in renaissance literature and art in Europe

In this article, a philosophical analysis of the coverage of human and humanitarian issues in the art and literature of the era of European civilization has been made. The development of aesthetic taste and the moral aspects of personality must be compatible with each other. For one example, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the all-round development of the individual in some cases resulted in the growth of egoism. Humanism arises when man begins to think about himself, his place in the universe, the essence of his nature and what he is capable of, the meaning and purpose of his existence. Undoubtedly, humanist considerations have always had a concrete socio-historical basis. More precisely, it fulfills the basic function of humanist anthropocentrism. Unfortunately, when reflecting on the European Renaissance, some scholars overestimate the role and importance of ancient cultural heritage in shaping Renaissance culture, especially humanism.