Modern Critical Theory Research Articles

Navigating Contemporary Islamic Reason: An Epistemological Analysis of Mohammed Arkoun

This research examines the profound epistemological critique and semiotic analysis of Islamic thought by Mohammed Arkoun, focusing on his challenge to traditional paradigms within Islamic scholarship. Arkoun argues that Islamic reason has historically been confined by dogmatic interpretations, which has limited its evolution in the context of modern challenges. Employing a historical-critical methodology and a semiotic approach, Arkoun seeks to uncover layers of meaning that have been obscured by traditionalist readings and to demonstrate the need for a more critical and dynamic interpretation of Islamic texts. Arkoun’s critique explores the historical, linguistic, and cultural contexts that shape Islamic thought, advocating for an approach that acknowledges the influence of these factors on religious interpretation. His analysis reveals how Islamic thought, if unchallenged and unchanged, risks stagnation in a rapidly evolving world. Through a detailed examination of Quranic discourse and the application of modern critical theories, Arkoun proposes a deconstruction of the 'thinkable' and challenges the 'unthinkable' within Islamic thought. This study emphasizes the importance of revisiting the epistemological foundations of Islamic knowledge to foster a more inclusive, reflective, and adaptive intellectual tradition. Arkoun's work provides valuable insights into the potential for Islamic thought to engage more profoundly with contemporary issues, urging a reform that embraces critical inquiry and the exploration of diverse interpretative possibilities.

GEOPOLITICAL THEORY AND IDENTITY PATTERNS (AN INTERTEXTUAL CRITIQUE IN POETIC TEXT) GEOPOLITICAL THEORY AND IDENTITY PATTERNS (AN INTERTEXTUAL CRITIQUE IN POETIC TEXT)

This research aims to introduce the concept of geopolitical theory and its relationship to identity patterns in Arabic literary texts. It highlights the scholars' and critics' openness to the humanities and applied sciences that intersect with modern critical theories. Any shift in political perspectives that leads to changes in the landscape of a nation necessitates corresponding transformations in literary texts and subsequently in identity patterns. This study holds significant importance both in geographical and literary/critical studies, seeking to explore interdisciplinary aspects within the humanities and to express the lived Arab reality. Furthermore, it emphasizes the relevance of keeping up with the advancements in critical studies due to their influence and interaction with foreign counterparts. The research delves into the problem of identifying a connection between the dimensions of geopolitical theory from both geographical and critical perspectives. To address this, poetic models are chosen that illustrate the relationship between geopolitical theory, identity patterns, and poetic texts. The study aims to answer some research hypotheses and address its problematic aspects through the results obtained, notably the inevitability of the existence of a relationship between geopolitical theory, identity patterns, and poetic texts. The research comprises two main axes. The first axis is theoretical and explores the concept of geopolitical theory, its dimensions, and its relationship to identity patterns. It also considers the main elements that contributed to shaping geopolitical theory in literary texts, including political, cultural, social, and civilizational factors, among others. The second axis is applied and focuses on the geopolitical aspects of poetic structures, particularly in functional and prose poetry

Extraordinary-log Universality of Critical Phenomena in Plane Defects.

The recent discovery of the extraordinary-log (E-Log) criticality is a celebrated achievement in modern critical theory and calls for generalization. Using large-scale MonteCarlo simulations, we study the critical phenomena of plane defects in three- and four-dimensional O(n) critical systems. In three dimensions, we provide the first numerical proof for the E-Log criticality of plane defects. In particular, for n=2, the critical exponent q[over ^] of two-point correlation and the renormalization-group parameter α of helicity modulus conform to the scaling relation q[over ^]=(n-1)/(2πα), whereas the results for n≥3 violate this scaling relation. In four dimensions, it is strikingly found that the E-Log criticality also emerges in the plane defect. These findings have numerous potential realizations and would boost the ongoing advancement of conformal field theory.

Theatermachine: Tadeusz Kantor in Context

Theatermachine: Tadeusz Kantor in Context

The philosophy of physical and sensory communication in the dramatic show

Modern critical theories revealed polemical views about the reality of the existence of communication - as a necessity for building a deliberative discourse - in the theater or not. To the theory of communication with all the conditions it imposes on thinking, interaction, and emancipation of selves in different contexts.Therefore, the current research included four chapters, the first chapter dealt with the research problem, which was represented in (the philosophy of sensory and physical communication in theatrical performance), and the first chapter included the importance of the research, its goal and its limits, and ended with defining the terminology, and the second chapter included (theoretical framework) the first topic (philosophical communication), The second topic (communicative theory, its elements and theatrical formats), while the third chapter included a sample and research tool, research and analysis method for a play exhibition (No What Happens), and the fourth chapter included the results of the analysis and the most important conclusions, then referrals and a list of sources

The Culture of Choice considered Through Cultural Studies

The article deals with modern cultural studies of choice, carried out within the framework of a pragmatic turn, a turn to the material, modern critical theory. It is shown that an independent field of cultural studies of choice is outlined, however, due to the complexity of the object for such developments, the fragmentation of the methods and approaches used is specific. To concretize and develop socio-cultural ideas about choice, we propose a specific conceptual construction — the concept of "culture of choice", which has its own internal structure. In the structure of the "culture of choice" we have identified two components: subjective and environmental. The subjective component is understood as cultural values internalized by the individual, norms, rules, principles that guide the subject when making a choice, as well as the subject’s culturally conditioned memory of the past and foresight of the future. The environmental component represents the features of the environment in which the individual makes a choice, information about the alternatives of choice that is currently incoming, as well as the tools and mechanisms of the environment that the subject uses when making a choice.

Applying Modern Literary Theories to Pre-Islamic Arabic Poetry: A Critical Analysis of the “Rite of Passage” Model

Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry has been analyzed from the perspectives of various modern critical literary theories. It has been subject to manifold critical applications that include oral poetry theories, structuralist and anthropological literary theories. Kemal Abu Deeb, Adnan Haydar and especially Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych are among the leading representatives of this phenomenon. Abu Deeb and Haydar apply specific structuralist techniques of analysis to the ancient Bedouin poetry, while Stetkevych proposes the paradigm of the “rite of passage” as formulated by Arnold van Gennep as a more applicable method to understanding Jāhilī poetry. She further argues that the three parts of the qaṣīda; the nasīb, raḥīl, and fakhr correspond to the three stages of the rite of passage; separation, liminality, and reaggregation. This article questions the applicability of such western literary theories in translation and analysis of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and its rhetorical elements. Concentrating on Stetkevych’s arguments in a more detailed fashion, the article elaborates peculiar characteristics of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and interrogates the applications of such western literary theories in understanding of this traditional form of poetry. It indicates that arbitrary classification and comparison of pre-Islamic poetical elements may not serve for any purpose other than deteriorating their original meanings and introducing additional complexities. It makes references to a good number of examples from her writings to arrive at the conclusion that for the sake of making certain pre-Islamic literary conventions comparable to western literary elements she pushes rhetorical components of both traditions into unnecessary, incomprehensible and complicated directions. The article appreciates industrious scholarly attempts at trying to integrate Arabic literature into world literature, but it still invites critical attention to the reconsideration some of their conclusions and generalizations. It revisits these arguments by way of comparing them to classical interpretations by indigenous Arabic literary authorities, especially in the cases of the two classical qaṣidas, namely the Mu‘allaqa of Imru’ al-Qays and the Bānat Su‘ād of Ka‘b b. Zuhayr. The article also questions Stetkevych’s generalizations based on these qaṣīdas regarding the issue of condemnation of poetry in Islam and articulates the contextual and historical peculiarities of this subject-matter.

Post-modernist Elements in Javed Ihsas’s Poetic Collection ‘Ayina (The Mirror)’

Javed Ihsas is a prominent contemporary Pashto poet, critic, and columnist. He writes poetry with the new spirit and style of the modern critical theories of literature and philosophy. In his verses, we can observe the elements of Modernism and Post-modernism as well. In this study, we explored the post-modernist elements in his poetry, especially in his Pashto poetic collection titled Ayina. The word 'Ayina' is a Pashto word that means 'The Mirror'. The very title of the collection gives a symbolic representation in the sense that it depicts a realistic picture of society. This study is an attempt to examine the Post-modernist elements in his poetry by using a post-modernist approach. The poet touches on the elements of post-modernism in his poetry such as the element of social construction; the notion that ideas, politics, and language are socially constructed, consumerism, postponement, etc. This study explores the post-modernist elements in Javed Ihsas’ poetry which are will prove a beacon light for the young poets.

Tracing Huxley’s orientalism: the European ‘Oriental’ background and Jesting Pilate as intellectual travelogue

Aldous Huxley was deeply influenced in his formative years by the East, and this is key to understanding his later evolution as a writer. Towards an exploration of this, the current study analyses the intellectual and cultural context of Europe at the time, with special attention to European writers and intellectuals who had an influence on Huxley and who thus helped to pave the way for his interest in the East and oriental matters early in his life, without ignoring the influence that they would also have on him in later years. Secondly, Orientalism is addressed both as an influence on Huxley and as a modern critical theory, with the aim of demonstrating the author’s modernity in light of this. Finally, the study analyses the work Jesting Pilate, not only in terms of its oriental prospects and proclivity as an intellectual travel book, but also as a means of tracing the oriental elements therein as determining factors in Huxley’s seminal stage during his European years. This is seen as a necessary amalgam, and one that would be further developed in his later output, during the so-called American years.

Philosophy

Sara Brill's new book develops her argument for understanding ‘shared life’ as central to Aristotle's ethics and politics. By focusing on this notion of shared life, she seeks to establish the connection between Aristotle's ethical, political, and zoological works in order to ground her emphasis on the essential animality of human society in Aristotle's conception. Her argument turns on a distinction between bios, a ‘way of life’ that we can choose or reject, and zoē, ‘life itself’ (3), and she is committed to establishing the generally unrecognized significance of the latter in Aristotle's ethical thought. The volume is divided into three parts. The first (‘Shared Life in Aristotle's Ethics and Politics’) concentrates on developing an account of Aristotle's concept of ‘shared life’ in the ethical and political works in such a way as to establish the importance of the zoological perspective. Here, Brill argues that shared life is at the heart of many of the central concerns of the Nicomachean Ethics, including his account of friendship. This is not simply sharing of goods or communal living: ‘Because living in its authoritative sense is perceiving and thinking, sharing one's life is sharing in perception and sharing in thinking’ (52). Brill finds a similar focus on shared zoē in the Eudemian Ethics, and the suggestion that our self-awareness and self-concern depend on the presence of others. She further develops her central claim: for all that Aristotle makes repeated assertions of human exceptionality, he also adopts a zoological framework of analysis that locates human friendship within the category of ‘animal attachment’, albeit as a special case. Human society is distinguished from animal society, but primarily as an intensification of the animal, rather than as a rejection of it. As Brill notes, setting up some of the critical analysis found in the third part of the book, her emphasis on community helps to highlight both its fragility and the consequences of exclusion. This is an idea she explains further in her analysis of shared life in the Politics: ‘if Aristotle's ethics show us the most vivid form of shared life, his Politics shows us the conditions of its destruction’ (92). Brill considers two extremes of shared life to be found in the Politics. Aristotle rejects communism for the sake of the philia that lies at the heart of a true community. His account of tyranny, meanwhile, can be understood as an analysis of a polis lacking a meaningful presence of shared life or the common good. The second part of the book concentrates on fleshing out the detail of the zoological perspective at the heart of Brill's argument by focusing on the zoological works in particular. She makes the sensible point that, while Aristotle's zoological works may be inaccurate in biological detail, they nevertheless help us to understand his own thinking about the nature and relationship of intelligence and life. Beginning with the History of Animals, Brill looks for the political in Aristotle's biological, and argues that he conceives of animal sociality in terms of its various manifestations of the political bond of a common task. It is within this context that we should situate even shared human life. This is not to say that humans are not to be distinguished from animals: what marks humans out is the fact that they can choose their way of life (bios). But this choice does not liberate them from the fact of their animality. For this reason, analysis of Aristotle's politics, and of the polis itself, should be informed by an awareness of his zoological sensibility. At times in the detail of Brill's own analysis, this zoological emphasis seems to fade into the background, but her central claim remains that human politics is an intensification of animal sociality, rather than a rejection of it. The third and final part presents an intriguing exploration of intersections between Brill's account of Aristotle's zoē-politics and modern critical theory (her volume is published in the interdisciplinary series Classics in Theory). She first addresses the connection between Aristotle's commitment to private ownership and his eugenics legislation, noting the double mean of tokos as both ‘interest’ and ‘child’. She is particularly interesting on Aristotle's concern with the threat of uncontrolled or excessive reproduction. She then turns to an analysis of Aristotle's account of – and ambivalence towards – the maternal bond as central to his understanding of human communities and, especially, friendship. The two chapters of Part III are particularly compelling; I look forward to seeing further approaches to Aristotle, and ancient philosophy in general, along these lines.

Roman Hydraulic Engineering: The Pont du Gard Aqueduct and Nemausus (Nîmes) Castellum

The water distribution castellum at the terminal end of the Pont du Gard aqueduct serving the Roman city of Nemausus in southern France is analyzed for its water engineering design and operation. By the use of modern hydraulic engineering analysis methods applied to analyze the castellum, new aspects of Roman water engineering technology are discovered not previously reported in the archaeological literature. Analysis of the castellum’s 10 basin wall flow distribution pipelines reveals that when a Roman version of modern critical flow theory is utilized in their design, the 10 pipelines optimally transfer water to city precincts at the maximum flow rate possible with a total flow rate closely approximating the input flow rate from the aqueduct. The castellum’s three drainage floor ports serve as additional fine-tuning to precisely match the input aqueduct flow rate to the optimized 10 pipeline output flow rate. The castellum’s many hydraulic engineering features provide a combination of advanced water engineering technology to optimize the performance of the water distribution system while at the same time enhancing the castellum’s aesthetic water display features typical of Roman values. While extensive descriptive archaeological literature exists on Roman achievements related to their water systems both in Rome and its provinces, what is missing is the preliminary engineering knowledge base that underlies many of their water system’s designs. The present paper is designed to provide this missing link by utilizing modern hydraulic engineering methodologies to uncover the basis of Roman civil engineering practice—albeit in Roman formats yet to be discovered.

Movement, Space, and Power in Cynewulf’s Juliana

ABSTRACT Cynewulf’s Juliana has long been the subject of feminist criticism, particularly focusing on the moments when Juliana claims power and agency in enclosure, even in her imprisonment. This article reevaluates Juliana’s claims to power and agency from the perspective of modern critical theory and pragmatics, arguing that Juliana uses place-deixis to claim her body as a sovereign space, challenging the secular and political authority imposed upon her by her pagan father, her fiancé, and the emperor. These authorities force Juliana to move physically — first from her household, then to court, and then to different locations where she is tortured and imprisoned. However, her bodily movement contrasts not only with her spiritual fixity, but with her continuing sovereignty over the space of her body. Place-deixis and spatial imagery work with references to God’s all-encompassing physical presence to redefine “power the relationship” and dwarf the limited authority that earthly authorities seem to wield.

Precarious Figures, Rigorous Styles

ABSTRACTAndrew Cole’s The Birth of Theory points to Plotinus’s dialectics of identity and difference as the foundation of Hegelianism and the source of modern critical theory. Of crucial importance is not only theory as a form of medievalism but also theory as a dialectics of figure and concept: theory is “thinking other.” This article examines Cole’s thesis alongside Eve Sedgwick’s diagnosis of the hermeneutics of suspicion and paranoid reading; both critics seek to undo New Historicism’s hold on literary studies within the historical rise of neoliberalism. Crucially, Cole’s deployment of feeling in dialectics — of thinking as also “feeling other” — is rooted in Sedgwickian and Deleuzian affect theories. Cole’s forceful critique of post-Deleuzianism, especially its rejection of dialectics, may be addressed through Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s study of precarity in the Anthropocene, the age of post-sustainability. Precarity, as an unpredictable encounter, is precisely the figural leap required in dialectical interpretation. Theory, informed by precarity, is the dialectical imagination as attentive doing that leads to dialectical surprises and utopian world-making.

Elaine T. James. Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. 233 pp.

Reviewed by: Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place by Elaine T. James Kelli A. Gardner Elaine T. James. Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. 233 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009419000084 The Song of Songs has never lacked for conversation partners. As metaphorically lush poetry, it has been fertile ground for allegorical readings as well as for comparative work with love poetry broadly, ancient and modern. Its uniquely prominent female figure has attracted feminist critics, both those who wish to uphold it as the salvific text for an otherwise androcentric canon and those who accuse it of many of the same gender troubles that plague the rest of the Bible. In short, it is rare to come across a new perspective on the Song of Songs. And yet, Elaine James's monograph, Landscapes of the Song of Songs, is just that. Through a thoughtful blend of critical theory and careful readings, James provides refreshing new insight into the Song of Songs, focused on the treatment and representation of landscape. [End Page 193] Despite the poem's detailed attention to the lovers' world, from lush garden to nighttime city streets, James establishes that in the interpretive history of the Song of Songs scholarly attention is too often diverted elsewhere (3–6). Whether readers are focused on discovering the allegorical or erotic meaning behind an image, landscapes seem to serve only as "vehicles" for these readings and are rarely "the object of interest" (6). James's work aims to fill this lacuna through a landscape approach to the Song. This approach, carefully constructed in conversation with theory on landscape (in various media and forms), space and place, agrarianism, urbanism, gender and the gaze, and poetry, begins from the understanding that "landscape fundamentally forms human experience" (2). This formation, however, works both ways: while people have an impact on their landscape, landscape shapes its inhabitants' culture, values, and imagination. As a result, a text's conceptualization of landscape is an important cultural artifact and should not be ignored as mere backdrop. James insists, therefore, that the Song's "landscapes are ethically charged poetic creations that draw the reader into its meditation on the human place in the natural world" (2). Equipped with this landscape approach introduced in the first chapter (but further developed and honed throughout the book) James divides her work on the Song according to its different landscapes. She focuses on the agrarian landscape of Song 1:5–8 and 7:11–14 (MT; 10–13 Eng) in chapter 2; the garden of Song 4:12–5:1 in chapter 3; the cityscape of Song 3:1–5 and 5:2–8, as well as the citification of the woman's body in Song 4:4, 6:4, 7:4, and 8:8–10 in chapter 4; and lastly the descriptive poems of the young woman, which James identifies as maps, in Song 4:1–7, 6:4–7, and 7:1–7 in chapter 5. Each chapter offers close and careful readings of the landscapes as described by the Song. She bolsters her analysis not only by engagement with modern critical theory, but also by drawing on archaeological data and comparison with the art and poetry of the ancient Near East. The real strength of this work lies in this detailed textual analysis. As a result of careful attention to lyric features (e.g., repetition, soundplay, structure, etc.), imagery, and perspective in the Song, James's readings are as insightful and poetic as the texts under examination. James demonstrates throughout the book that a landscape approach brings to the Song a fresh perspective that is still grounded in historical critical methods. For example, James pushes back against the notion that the Song represents a sharp dichotomy between nature and culture (an assumption for many and an assertion by some who have worked on the Song) by demonstrating how a garden is "a cultural form that serves as a microcosm for ideals about the natural world" (59). In other words, the garden is an art form that relies on both nature and culture for its existence. This is apparent in...

Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place by Elaine T. James

Reviewed by: Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place by Elaine T. James Kelli A. Gardner Elaine T. James. Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. 233 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009419000084 The Song of Songs has never lacked for conversation partners. As metaphorically lush poetry, it has been fertile ground for allegorical readings as well as for comparative work with love poetry broadly, ancient and modern. Its uniquely prominent female figure has attracted feminist critics, both those who wish to uphold it as the salvific text for an otherwise androcentric canon and those who accuse it of many of the same gender troubles that plague the rest of the Bible. In short, it is rare to come across a new perspective on the Song of Songs. And yet, Elaine James's monograph, Landscapes of the Song of Songs, is just that. Through a thoughtful blend of critical theory and careful readings, James provides refreshing new insight into the Song of Songs, focused on the treatment and representation of landscape. [End Page 193] Despite the poem's detailed attention to the lovers' world, from lush garden to nighttime city streets, James establishes that in the interpretive history of the Song of Songs scholarly attention is too often diverted elsewhere (3–6). Whether readers are focused on discovering the allegorical or erotic meaning behind an image, landscapes seem to serve only as "vehicles" for these readings and are rarely "the object of interest" (6). James's work aims to fill this lacuna through a landscape approach to the Song. This approach, carefully constructed in conversation with theory on landscape (in various media and forms), space and place, agrarianism, urbanism, gender and the gaze, and poetry, begins from the understanding that "landscape fundamentally forms human experience" (2). This formation, however, works both ways: while people have an impact on their landscape, landscape shapes its inhabitants' culture, values, and imagination. As a result, a text's conceptualization of landscape is an important cultural artifact and should not be ignored as mere backdrop. James insists, therefore, that the Song's "landscapes are ethically charged poetic creations that draw the reader into its meditation on the human place in the natural world" (2). Equipped with this landscape approach introduced in the first chapter (but further developed and honed throughout the book) James divides her work on the Song according to its different landscapes. She focuses on the agrarian landscape of Song 1:5–8 and 7:11–14 (MT; 10–13 Eng) in chapter 2; the garden of Song 4:12–5:1 in chapter 3; the cityscape of Song 3:1–5 and 5:2–8, as well as the citification of the woman's body in Song 4:4, 6:4, 7:4, and 8:8–10 in chapter 4; and lastly the descriptive poems of the young woman, which James identifies as maps, in Song 4:1–7, 6:4–7, and 7:1–7 in chapter 5. Each chapter offers close and careful readings of the landscapes as described by the Song. She bolsters her analysis not only by engagement with modern critical theory, but also by drawing on archaeological data and comparison with the art and poetry of the ancient Near East. The real strength of this work lies in this detailed textual analysis. As a result of careful attention to lyric features (e.g., repetition, soundplay, structure, etc.), imagery, and perspective in the Song, James's readings are as insightful and poetic as the texts under examination. James demonstrates throughout the book that a landscape approach brings to the Song a fresh perspective that is still grounded in historical critical methods. For example, James pushes back against the notion that the Song represents a sharp dichotomy between nature and culture (an assumption for many and an assertion by some who have worked on the Song) by demonstrating how a garden is "a cultural form that serves as a microcosm for ideals about the natural world" (59). In other words, the garden is an art form that relies on both nature and culture for its existence. This is apparent in...

Philosophical foundations of the modern critical theory

The paradigmatic basis of the modern model of Critical Theory is reconstructed in this article. Critical Theory as a conceptually holistic research program of modern Humanities, characterized by the integrality of its philosophical and methodological foundations, is explicated. The main ideas of A. Honnet’s conception of “struggle for recognition” as the normative basis for sociocultural transformations are analyzed. The key elements of the newest versions of the Critical Theory on the example of R. Forst’s concept of justice as the realization of the “right to justification” are researched.

The Reject: Community, Politics and Religion After the Subject by Irving Goh

Reviewed by: The Reject: Community, Politics and Religion After the Subject by Irving Goh Kir Kuiken Goh, Irving. The Reject: Community, Politics and Religion After the Subject. Fordham University Press, 2015. 384 pp. It is rare these days to read a book as ambitious as Irving Goh's The Reject. Taking up the question that Jean-Luc Nancy posed in 1988—"Who comes after the subject?"—Goh's study proposes a theory of "the reject" as a crucial figure through which to reconceptualize modern critical and political theory's reliance on the centrality of the subject. Engaging in a reading that charts this figure through a range of contemporary French philosophers, the study simultaneously attempts to articulate how "the reject" might help to posit, as Goh puts it, "another ethics, another 'religion without religion,' and another politics, all 'without the subject'" (23). Not content merely to articulate a coherent theory of "the reject," Goh's study also attempts to suggest how such a figure might help us to revise our understanding of the political purchase of post-humanism, animal ethics, and network theory. This is a tall order for a single volume, and given all the touchstones it tries to include, the commentary stretches itself thin in places. Nevertheless, the book is highly provocative, striving as it does to invent a new conception of a politics without the subject. As such, it should interest a range of readers—from those interested in philosophy and religion, to readers of contemporary critical and political theory. Goh's study is divided into six chapters: the first introduces the project as a whole; chapters 2-4 (the backbone of the book) develop readings of "the reject" in contemporary theory; chapters 5-6 figure as a prolegomena for how "the reject" might be brought to bear on questions of "posthumanism," and a conclusion, respectively. The second chapter, "(After) Friendship, Love, and Community," attempts to uncover a theory of the reject in Derrida's Politics of Friendship, in Deleuze's thinking about community (specifically his conception of "nomadology") and in several of Cixous's texts from the 1990s. The chapters that follow, "The Reject and the 'Postsecular' or Who's Afraid of Religion" and "Prolegomenon to Reject-Politics: From Voyous to Becoming Animal," proceed to work out how the figure of "the reject" reorients the significance of the recent [End Page 107] so-called "religious turn" in French thought, and how it reimagines the nature of resistance in contemporary political theory. Goh's justification for concentrating on Derrida, Deleuze, and Cixous, centers on the way these authors all purportedly minimize the role of the subject. Though Goh also deals obliquely with Irigaray, Badiou, Balibar and Rancière, for example, these thinkers, he claims, all have conceptions of "the reject" that are repressed insofar as, for them, "the reject" is deployed only in order to re-imagine the nature of subjectivity. Goh's gambit, in other words, is to insist that "the reject" replaces the subject as the starting point for politics, religion, conceptions of the community, and so on. Rather than destabilize these concepts from within, "the reject" is presented as an alternative, a space or figure through and from which one can overcome tout court the role that the subject, however "destabilized" or "deconstructed," plays in political and religious thought. When Goh turns to Derrida in chapter two, however, this line or division between "the reject" and the subject becomes difficult to maintain. In this chapter, Goh focuses on Derrida's Politics of Friendship, attempting to demonstrate how "the reject" emerges in the context of Derrida's reading of Aristotle. If, in Aristotle, "the reject" is the one who violates friendship by not reciprocating, by doing nothing, in Derrida, "the reject" becomes an active force: The being-loved, previously targeted or passive reject, now becomes a figure that potentially bears an active force of rejection of friendship, precisely through his or her silence, inaction, and nonresponse. One is now uncertain if the being-loved, in his or her secret silence, is not in fact consciously rejecting acknowledging and responding to the aimance of friendship. (44) In Goh's analysis of Derrida's reading of Aristotle...

Le rôle de la Rhétorique dans le développement de la pensée critique du droit

Rhetoric has accompanied the science of Law since its birth. This art has contributed to the birth of the Philosophy of Law and Critical Thinking in Law. Rhetoric is intrinsically linked to criticism. It is an approach which consists of submitting every argument to judgment according to the method of antilogy. Rhetoric is, therefore, a pedagogy of criticism. Thanks to Perelman’s work, the potentialities of rhetoric has been rediscovered by lawyers. That said, the modern Critical Legal Theories have underestimated the critical potential of rhetoric. We will try to explain in our article the origin of the fracture between the art of rhetoric and critical thinking and will illustrate how Perelman's New Rhetoric has recomposed this fracture.

Critical Theory Based on the communicative function: Analytical study of contemporary experience

With the rapid development in communication technology nowadays, humanities disciplines have become closer and interconnected, which led to the flourishing of interdisciplinary fields. This paper attempts to survey the relationship between modern literary criticism and communication theories; it can be said that the progress that modern linguistics have witnessed in considering the poetic function among other communication functions has contributed to frame a literary theory based on the fundamental acts of communication. The works of Arab critic Mur?d Mabr?k could serve as a good example in this matter; he has been, in his hundred books and papers, interested in literary communication theory, which he thinks could be a comprehensive framework for the critics to analyse literary works, in regard to the texts, and in regard to their creators and readers. Mabr?k’s interest in this theory began in the early years of the current AD century, as he published several books and articles trying to draw a clear image of literary communication theory. He traces the roots of the theory in ancient Greek philosophy, classical Arabic criticism and rhetorics. He also follows the theory’s dimensions and concepts in other fields such as Anthropology, Sociology, and Information Science. Not only that, but Mabr?k suggests his own reading strategy of literary works, applying it on classical and modern poems, novels, and even commercial adds. It is the aim of this research to study Mabr?k’s project in order to understand the nature of the relationship between concepts of communication and modern critical theories.

Voice in Later Medieval English Literature: Public Interiorities by David Lawton

Reviewed by: Voice in Later Medieval English Literature: Public Interiorities by David Lawton James B. Harr III Voice in Later Medieval English Literature: Public Interiorities By David Lawton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/voice-in-later-medieval-english-literature-9780198792406?cc=us&lang=en&> Characterization and the use of framework narrative in the traditional sense have long dictated academic approaches to late-medieval literature, and while there have certainly been deviations, particularly as emerging critical theories are embraced by medieval scholarship, focus often returns to standard hermeneutical approaches to literature of the Middle Ages. In his recent book, Voice in Later Medieval English Literature, David Lawton takes a fresh look at late-fourteenth to fifteenth-century literature and examines the medieval voice specifically articulated in (but certainly not limited to) the works of Chaucer and Langland through the analysis of public interiorities and modern criticism. "Public interiorities," as Lawton defines them, "are pieces of language—as speech or text—which already exist before they are revoiced by a new user" (8). He uses this term to uncover a layer of text neglected by previous studies as a means to reveal an interlinear voice, while concurrently repositioning medieval scholarship away from its preoccupation with "authority." In doing so, the intertextuality between classical, biblical, and medieval examples is exposed and a prevalent—and overlooked—element in medieval literary studies emerges. The book commences with a clear presentation of authorial objectives while briefly anticipating possible counterarguments. For example, Lawton mentions that he deliberately omits John Gower from the discussion as the breadth of his work and his place in Chaucerian discourse require a separate and devoted project. After briefly providing instances of public interiorities as a means to introduce the reader to the term, Lawton moves to the use of voice in literature. He carefully foreshadows his integration of modern examples to parallel and further elucidate the voice in medieval texts. In doing so, he simultaneously projects a relationship between the literary past and present, emulating "the practice of medieval authors" (11). Arguably, a significant challenge for Lawton [End Page 124] is in acknowledging a conceptualization of the voice while temporarily obscuring any delineation between the spoken word and the written word. As he readily admits, "Voice will not be easy to define, for it is not a determinate order of signs like figures or tropes but a volatile series of suggestions or cues that move between theme and address, between text and reader" (2). However, it is apparent by the end of the book that he has surmounted this difficulty. Divided into two parts, the book first focuses on voice and public interiorities. The second half of the book takes the concepts explicated in Chapters 1–4 and applies them to Piers Plowman, The Canterbury Tales, and fifteenth-century poetry. In Chapter 1, Lawton uses an example that would have been both recognized and embraced by the late-medieval writer: Saint Paul. In the context of Chaucerian texts, he uses Paul's voice to initially set up a conversation that has Chaucer, "the opposite pole to Paul on voice" (19), conversing with the apostle through his characters. For example, Paul's tenets are reflected in the sermon given by the Pardoner and (indirectly) rejected by the Wife of Bath. It is in this chapter that Lawton connects the voice to the soul, referencing several examples including those found in medieval art, making the concept of voice abstract. Chapter 2 moves to articulating the relationship between voice and public interiorities, thus imbricating the two distinct terms while using the modern (Proust) to juxtapose the medieval (Chaucer and Machaut). Lawton sums up this chapter by writing, "The voice…is complicated, bitter, full both of other texts and of more personalized grievance. It is a strange mixture of anger and urbanity, but no less public a voice for that" (60). Chapter 3 looks to modern critical theory and invokes Habermas's Offentlichkeit (public sphere) to define "public interiorities." Lawton is careful not to suggest that the two are the same but clearly asserts, "Public interiorities are not public spheres, however, though they arise precisely from the convergences and divergences...