Polemical Discourse Research Articles

Dark Deeds, Broken Bodies

In the year 250/864–65, Baghdad’s governor Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṭāhir ordered the defilement of a prisoner’s corpse and grave site. The prisoner, Isḥāq b. Jināḥ, had been a criminal magistrate serving the rebel leader Yaḥyā b. ʿUmar, who had led a failed revolt in Kufa against the Abbasid caliphate (132–650/750–1258). According to the fourth/tenth-century historian al-Iṣbahānī, the governor demanded that the deceased Isḥāq b. Jināh not receive a funerary prayer, corpse-washing, or a burial shroud. Moreover, he ordered the corpse to be immersed in water in a grave and buried at a Jewish ruin. The governor’s intentional neglect of proper Islamic funerary rituals is shocking but not entirely surprising. Medieval Islamic political chronicles, biographical dictionaries, and social commentaries abound with darkly salacious reports of corpse neglect and even violence, shining a light on the efforts of the living to affect the dead. Why would anyone seek to “harm” a corpse? And what purpose did medieval Islamic historical narratives of necroaggression serve? This article addresses the narrative power of corpse violence in Greater Iraq during the mid-third/ninth and early fourth/tenth centuries, investigating the political meanings inscribed on bodies unmade by others. Viewing necroaggression as a type of performative political act, the article examines a vibrant polemical discourse that toyed with administrative concerns over coercion as well as popular anxieties over possible sensations experienced postmortem.

The Decolonial Poetics of Jaime Luis Huenún

The social and literary evolution of contemporary Chile is characterized by the affirmation of new voices from indigenous peoples. This article aims to show how one of these voices, the mestizo poet of Mapuche-Huilliche origin Jaime Luis Huenún, articulates a poetic project of great originality and critical significance. In the collection Reducciones (Reservations), the documentary poetry invites the reader to engage with the decolonization of knowledge, while Fanon city meu ( fanon city meu) focuses on the ravages of colonization on identity. The latter is seen as a descent into hell. The infernal motif is made clearer by the polemical discussion Fanon has with Sartre on the latter's text Black Orpheus. This implicit dialogue provides the key to Huenun's decolonial poetics and allows us to underline the aporia inherent in the quest for identity and its inextricable link with betrayal.

“Enlightened Man Incarnate”: Mediating Enlightenment in Eighteenth‐Century Literary Reviews

Abstract‘Crucial to the Enlightenment’, Roy Porter argued, was the work of ‘critics, knowledge‐mongers, and opinion‐makers’; the critic was ‘enlightened man incarnate’. In order to enhance our understanding of the ways in which exponents of print culture sought to orient public opinion and promote recognizably liberal principles and values, this article will examine both the polemical discourses of prolific literary journalists and the intellectual context of key issues, highlighting the work of the lawyer Owen Ruffhead. In often substantive commentaries, Ruffhead and his fellow critics referenced a distinctive set of natural law principles: they celebrated the norms of right reason, of equity and liberty. Amongst the values expounded in the Reviews were Lockean political precepts congruent with core features of liberal theory. From the mid‐eighteenth century, an early and unfamiliar ‘liberal’ vocabulary and agenda can be traced as civil liberties and rights were advocated, including the rights of the colonists, the underprivileged and the exploited. Decades before the term liberalism was devised, critics contributed to the shaping and diffusion of recognizably liberal patterns of thinking. Such an inquiry into a vibrant domain of ideas engages in ongoing historiographical debates, providing a new perspective on the formation and diffusion of influential ethical and socio‐political modes of thought.

CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO RESEARCHING POLEMICS AND POLEMIC DISCOURSE

The article is dedicated to identifying the approaches to researching polemic discourse and the general idea of polemics. The concept of "polemic" is explored through linguistic and cultural lenses, considering its definitions in both English and Russian. While in English, it is primarily understood as a form of written argumentation, in Russian, it encompasses a broader range of communicative situations, including debates and discussions. The historical evolution of polemic writing is examined, tracing its origins to religious debates during the Middle Ages. Early polemics were characterized by aggressive language and one-sided arguments, often lacking consideration for opposing viewpoints. Translation played a significant role in shaping these debates, as linguistic barriers hindered mutual understanding. Despite changes over time, modern polemic writing continues to be subjective and aggressive, although contemporary examples often incorporate irony, satire, and grotesque elements. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the fact of addressing polemic discourse from different angles, considering the cultural implications which may influence the dichotomy in researching this study object. Theoretical analysis, comparison, and contrast methods are employed toreview the body of research related to polemics, providing insights into its complexity and evolving nature. The practical significance of the research results lies in their contribution to the understanding of polemic discourse, which has implications for communication strategies and cross-cultural communication.

Beyond polemics: towards an understanding of the narratives around the desired and despised Conocarpus tree in Kuwait for better urban green infrastructure

Over the past three decades, Kuwait’s urban landscape has become dominated by the controversial Conocarpus lancifolius tree. This exotic tree is shrouded in a polemic discourse, oscillating between desiring or despising it. On one extreme it is desired by local environmental activists as a versatile evergreen tree that can withstand Kuwait’s harsh arid climate and saline soil; on the other, it is despised by local ecologists and engineers for its monoculture and the destructive behaviour of its roots to subsurface urban infrastructure. This qualitative research aims to understand the multiple narratives around C. lancifolius by analysing institutional reports, social media, local news and grounded interviews. It argues for the need to move beyond polemics regarding C. lancifolius by calling for inclusive landscape governance frameworks for its management, and offers initial context-specific recommendations which may contribute to better urban green infrastructure (UGI) implementation in Kuwait.

All or Nothing: Polemicizing God and the Buddhist Void in the Jesuit Mission to East Asia

The Jesuit mission to East Asia highlights the polemical difficulties inherent in the process of introducing, translating, and creating a new theological paradigm within a host culture without a common religious worldview. Both Matteo Ricci in China and Ricci’s erstwhile teacher, Alessandro Valignano, in Japan, both inveighed against Buddhism for positing a “void” as the Absolute rather than God. The East Asian Jesuit mission had an incomplete understanding of what emptiness/nothingness/void referred to until the native Japanese convert and former Zen monk, Fukansai Habian, took up the mantle as the Jesuit polemicist against native systems of thought, in particular, Buddhism. Whereas Ricci and Valignano attacked the “void” within the context of a negation of “something”, Habian correctly understood the void as akin to the pleroma, the fullness of possibility, and the creative principle, but used his more nuanced understanding as a polemical expedient to deny or negate all Buddhist doctrines as expressing nothingness (which he erroneously equates with the void), even such form-affirming schools as the Pure Land school with its clearly defined goal of a physical post-mortem Pure Land. The polemical paradigm engendered by this encounter also served as the starting point for Buddhism’s appearance in the Western imagination. This paper will make a comparative investigation of the polemical discourse between the Jesuits and Buddhists regarding the Absolute and demonstrate how this historical instance would have far-reaching consequences that have ongoing relevance regarding the interplay of Christian and Buddhist teachings.

D. R. Cox: aspects of scientific inference

Abstract The year 2022 marked 100 years since R. A. Fisher’s landmark paper on the foundations of statistics, and 50 years since D. R. Cox’s seminal work on the proportional hazards model. At a 1-day meeting in recognition of the latter, held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, I attempted to place some of D. R. Cox’s most influential work in its appropriate historical context, reconstructing some of his ideas from unifying principles and providing a different exposition to that of the original papers. The present article is an elaboration of that talk. Additional material includes a geometric explanation of conditional inference in models with binary outcomes, relating the logistic analysis of matched comparisons presented by Cox (1958c, Two further applications of a model for binary regression. Biometrika, 45, 562–565) to the protracted and sometimes polemical discourse over the analysis of 2×2 contingency tables.

The Term Diversidade (en. Diversity) and Its Displacement on News Portals: from Didactic to Polemical Discourse

RESUMO Este artigo analisa os discursos polêmico e didático na materialidade do termo diversidade tal como circulou, de 2006 a 2022, em portais de notícias. Orientado teoricamente pela Análise do Discurso de linha francesa e metodologicamente pela ferramenta AntConc, o corpus indica uma mutação nos efeitos de sentido dominantes do termo-pivô na medida em que deixa de participar de uma estrutura completiva em diversidade de espécies para se tornar uma palavra intransitiva. Esse processo envolve uma transição e a coexistência com as estruturas diversidade sexual e diversidade e (no sintagma coordenado diversidade e inclusão). O didatismo atinente à descrição de diversidade em termos biológicos ou ambientais cede espaço à polêmica marcada pela ordem do dia da agenda identitária. Sem que uma forma apague a outra, este artigo demonstra que há uma apropriação do vocábulo pela economia de mercado.

Spór o mangę – rzut oka z perspektywy badacza komiksu


 
 
 The article is an attempt to analyse the methods and critical arguments against the manga and anime expressed by the people who, in the polemical discourse of their opponents, are treated as experts. The analysis focuses mostly on articles by Małgorzata Więczkowska, highlighting the constant crypto-self-quotations and the repeating of factual errors and steoreotypical biases. In these texts, one can notice i.e. the generalisation of accusations based on opinions on particular titles, describing the entire phenomenon through the characteristics of selected types and genres, the lack of any distinction being made between manga and anime, and lastly, a superficial understanding of the works in question, whose content and message the author often extrapolates from an overview, without taking the specifics of each work into account.
 
 

Authority as a Challenge

The early Christian world was diverse. Various groups of Christians held opposite views on crucial theological and social elements while claiming to be the true followers of Jesus Christ. In this diversity, two streams of Christianity were particularly popular: proto-orthodox Christians and Valentinian Gnostics. These groups were included in the sharp polemical discussions and battles, as they tried to gain a monopoly in the early Christian world. In the end, proto-orthodoxy won thus marginalizing Valentinian Gnostics. In that process, Church authors, such as Irenaeus and Justin Martyr reclaimed the history of Christianity by defining themselves as the guardians of orthodoxy. Furthermore, they put the label of “heresy” on Valentinians claiming that they are not real Christians, but a subversive group that had corrupted the original message of Jesus and his disciples. In this paper, I have tried to demonstrate that one of the crucial reasons for the triumph of the Great Church was related to the concepts of authority and organization. To show that, I have analysed what kind of attitude Valentinian Gnostics had toward authority and organization. As sources reflect, Valentinian Gnosticism was an anti-structural movement that emphasized an individual approach to the divine through esoteric knowledge. Furthermore, their belief in the threefold division of humanity affected their attitude toward bishops and apostolic succession. Consequently, they rejected the authority of bishops and presbyters and put the emphasis on the small philosophical circle of students that would gather around influential teachers. Eventually, such a spiritual and religious perspective made it impossible to create a network of connected communities whose sense of universal identity would transgress local and regional borders. In the end, Valentinian Gnosticism was a conglomerate of independent communities scattered across the Mediterranean. In other words, Valentinian’s theological beliefs that modelled their attitude toward authority and social structure were a crucial factor in their marginalization within the early Christian world.

The Representation of False Prophets in Polemical Discourses

In this article, I analyse some “transversal” polemical motifs (adopted by both “pagans” and Christians) in the representation of Alexander of Abonouteichos, offered in the homonymous work by Lucian of Samosata, and in the description of the Montanists in heresiological sources, focusing in particular on the polemists who are quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea. This analysis attempts to highlight how, despite the differences between the mentioned authors, it is possible to find some common points in the representation of the “false prophets” that is often due to the same literary references. In particular, I analyse the way of presenting the life and behaviour of these characters and their way of delivering prophetic messages.

Literary Education in Czech Schools

The authors of the paper introduce the readers to the context of the literary edu- cation in Czech schools. In Czech milieu were hold many polemic discussions, that are known at least since the year 1890. Into that discussions were involved big personalities of conterporary cultural live, among others Hubert Gordon Schauer, František Krejčí, Jaroslav Vlček, Otakar Hostinský, Vilém Mathesius and Jan Mukařovský. In many cases thay evaluated teaching of literature as distant from the life of a young generation, too historically oriented, and pointed out its deficient connection with aesthetics of a literary work. They held against excessive memorization as contrary to the little emphasis put on reading and analysis of literary work. The authors of the paper are strongly convinced that even after more than 130 years of polemic discussions about the form of literary education and a series of reforms (which cannot even be taken into account because it is not clear where one reform ends and another begins), the real curriculum of literary education has not fundamentally changed.

PROSODIC CHARACTERISTICS OF EMPHATHIC STATEMENTS IN FRENCH POLEMICAL DISCOURSE

The article discusses the problem of prosodic means of expressing emphasis in French on the basis of polemical discourse. Two types of emphasis are distinguished - local (lexical) and global (supralexical) and the prosodic characteristics of global emphasis are analyzed. It is shown that, unlike the lexical one, the supralexical emphasis is reflected in the prosodic organization of the phrase as a whole. Based on the results of auditory and acoustic analysis of utterances, a classification of tonal contours expressing global emphasis is proposed, and the accent-melodic and dynamic characteristics of the components of the contour structure – the pre-nuclear part and the nuclear tone, which have not yet received coverage in works on the prosody of French speech, are described.

Issues of the Research of The Little Traveller's Book. Polemic Discourse

A polemical article reacts to the plenary part of the conference Francysk Skaryna and the Renaissance book culture. Skaryna’s Little Travel Book turns 500, held in Vilnius on 22–23 September 2022. After a review of the history of Little Traveler’s Book studies since 1971, five problems in the study of the first printed book of the GDL, touched on in S. Temchin’s plenary speech The Place of Printing of Francysk Skaryna’s “Little Traveller’s Book”: New Assumptions are discussed. In addition, two other aspects related to the study of place and time of printing: genre predetermination and application of modern methods to the study of Little Traveler’s Book are investigated.

Polemic Discourse on the Zoning Education System Policy by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Bondowoso Indonesia

Polemic Discourse on the Zoning Education System Policy by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Bondowoso Indonesia

Identity of Christianity and Homeland Defense in Hagiography

Original Georgian martyrologic literary works cover the whole cycle of an old Georgian literature. It dates back to V-XVIII centuries. Primary reasons of the emergence of the Cult of Saints should be found in the New Testament books. Introduction of the "Martyrdom" literary genre in the hagiographic literature was caused by the martyrdom of the Christ and his apostles. Since hagiography is characterised by its syncretism, it does not even lose its actuality or contemporaneousness because of its ideology. Source criticism materials that are abundantly found in “Martyrdom of St.Eustathius of Mtskheta” make an important basis for doing historical and literary studies and making the corresponding outcomes. The literary work provides information concerning the global issues of the epoch, that is crucial for understanding the persona characteristics and strengths of Eustathius. Due to the Imperial policy of Persians, there was an interregnum period in Eastern Georgia. The supreme power of the king was replaced by the Marzban appointed by the Shah (same as the King) of Persians. At that period of time, Georgian Rulers (known as “Mamasakhlisi”) and gentlefolks were beside Persians, though their rights were rather formal and nominal. At such a difficult period, when the Persians dominated Kartli, recognition of Christianity by Eustathius, who was a Persian by descent, was the great bravery and courage. The Martyr for the Christ had also become the defender of our country’s interests. He is considered as a National hero, as martyrdom for the Christ had been associated as devotion to the country. By his actions and decisions, Eustathius was against to the cruel politics of conquerors, and here, exactly, is revealed not only his religious, but also his human, civil positions and attitudes. This position is better reflected in St. Razhden’s actions, who became an ally of the King Vakhtang. As Abo was constantly beside Nerse Eristavi, it is possible to suppose that he even shared his political ideology. Historical background of that period makes Abo’s torture more valuable and meaningful but not only of his torture, even Abo's civil position is completely explicit. By his deeds, he was apparently against the Arab conquerors that is proved by his preaching the Christian religion and his polemical discussions with Amira. In the original Georgian hagiography, authenticity of Orthodox Church for the national identity preservation is emphasized, and the paths of religious and national salvation are also intersected. Therefore, each saint is considered not only a Martyr of the Christ, but also a national hero and a fighter against aggression.

Первый образец «толстого журнала» в России: к 220-летию со времени издания «Вестника Европы» Н. М. Карамзина

The article analyzes the content of Nikolay Karamzin’s “Vestnik Evropy.” Two sections — “Politics” and “Literature and Miscellanea” — contained a variety of material that Karamzin drew from foreign periodicals from different countries. Translations, which he did for 20 years, and a good knowledge of journals and newspapers in Europe, helped him create an example of a socio-political and literary periodical. The article examines the content of political articles devoted to the events of European life during the difficult socio-political situation of the early 19th century. Turning to various primary sources and serious foreign analysts, Karamzin deliberately set a polemical discourse in the journal, in which he himself took part as a commentator. The article traces evolution of Karamzin’s attitude towards Napoleon and notes that admiration for the deeds of the commander and statesman is replaced by disappointment and skepticism after the proclamation of his “eternal consulate.” Throughout 1803, the “Vestnik Evropy” published many materials on the successes of education and charity in Russia. The author of the article notes that Karamzin managed to lay the foundations for future “thick” Russian journals of the 19th century.

O papel das fake news e insultos verbais na estratégia antipolítica da extrema direita brasileira

Abstract This paper, which is based on the polemical discourse perspective (Amossy, 2017), has two objectives, namely analyzing Fake News as a disinformation strategy used by the Brazilian Far Right, and investigating the resignification of verbal insults as a subaltern resistance tactic. Through Queer Linguistics (Borba, 2015), we suggest the conceptual distinction between “strategies” and “tactics” (Certeau, 2007), as well as “subaltern resignification” as a solution for the “Paradox of Tolerance” (Popper, 1974). Furthermore, we use semantic chains (Morais, 2018) to formalize the “architecture of disinformation” and the “architecture of information.” Our analysis is based on a few statements given by Bolsonarists in interviews, in the Federal Senate Committee and five tweets posted on former Federal Deputy Jean Wyllys’ official Twitter account. We conclude that linguistic expressions that reiterate situations of symbolic violence are the primary foundation for legitimizing physical and structural violence against LGBT people. Despite this fact, the controversial clash indicates the possibility of a tactical emergence of new political and social subjects who were previously subordinate.

Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche's Terminal Sud (2019) and the Resurgence of a Franco-Algerian Archive

In this article, the author engages with the latest film by Franco-Algerian filmmaker Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, Terminal Sud (2019). The article situates the film within a cultural and political context characterized by a variety of polemical discourses: these concern the relationship between cultural memory and the French colonization of Algeria, the Algerian décennie noire (1991-2002), and policies of Franco-Algerian "reconciliation" pursued by the acting French government since 2017. With reference to this immediate context, the author examines a number of political, historical, and theoretical perspectives on the nature of the "archive" before undertaking a critical analysis of Terminal Sud's aesthetic practices of spatio-temporal deterritorialization, mixing semiotic referents, and cinematic aniconism. Through this analysis, the author contends that Terminal Sud enacts a visual recreation of an immaterial Franco-Algerian archive that responds to the fragmentation and destruction suffered by its material counterparts during, and following, French colonization of Algeria in the years 1830-1962. In doing so, this article explores the potential role of visual culture as a means to express a shared Franco-Algerian consciousness.

POLEMIC DISCOURSE ONTOLOGY: COMPARATIVE ASPECT (in English and Ukrainian)

Introduction. The paper focuses on the concept of polemic discourse as public verbalcollision in the process of which the author breaks the principles of ethical communication inorder to realize certain tasks. In verbal practice metaphor of polemics reveals its power basedon the physical collision sensory-motor experience. Purpose. The paper aims to highlight theconceptual understanding of public verbal collision that is grounded on the image schema ofBLOCKING, which means making the opponent face some obstacle, and COUNTERATTACK,that illustrates the way of collision of two equally powerful opponents whose character ofattacks is different. Methods. The methodology of the given research is based on comparative,conceptual and linguocognitive methods of characterization the mechanisms of conducting thedebate to achieve certain results in polemic discourse verbalized in English and Ukrainian.Results. Studying the mechanism of polemic discourse, the paper emphasizes that BLOCKINGpredetermines the strategy reasoning to make the opponent look like some obstacle forthe author. COUNTERATTACK reflects the interactive character of verbal collision betweenthe participants of the debate, and author and opponent change their parts from time to time.It is proved that sensory-motor factors influence the verbalization of the collision polemicpower which is realized in such notions as conflict, fight, war and aggression. During theirdebate the opponents use so called verbal collision weapons which hit but don’t kill physically.Conclusion. The paper identifies the participants of polemic discourse: sender and two addresses(opponent and listeners). The sender, who is the author of polemic discourse, stands for differentsocial institutions’ points of view. His main tasks are the following: to lower the social statusof the opponent and to get as many as possible supporters among the listeners. Like the authorthe opponent is explicated in the polemics as the person who states the opinion of differentinstitutions. Listeners become arbitrators who take the decision about the winner of the debate.