Modern Spirit Research Articles

Kant and Schopenhauer on the Ultimate Goal of Human Life

Contemporary reflection concerning man focuses upon man as a being living only “here and now”, it is “short-termed” in character. In this paper, going against the current of this dominant tendency, I would like to show how interesting and important is the question about the ultimate goal of human life. In my considerations I refer to the thought of Immanuel Kant and Arthur Schopenhauer – two classical authors of modern philosophy – who still seem to exert a significant influence on the European culture. Even if in their systems they depart from similar assumptions, their conclusions concerning man are radically different: for Kant, every human being has unique value and is called to create “civil society”; for Schopenhauer every individual being (including man) is volatile and devoid of meaning and value. The question remains open as to whether the ultimate message of their philosophy can be still an inspiration for us today, or whether it already sounds rather strange and unfamiliar in confrontation with the spirit of modernity.

Was kennzeichnet einen Holzbau?

The new online encyclopaedia www.holzbaukultur.ch from the Bern University of Applied Sciences presents Swiss timber buildings across six centuries and shows lineages of development. The wide range of examples initiates a debate about the characteristics of timber buildings. Switzerland is generally associated with craftsmanship and traditional timber buildings in the Alpine region. The attempt to develop timber architecture in the spirit of modernism in the 20th century was not very successful. The proportion of timber in total building volume decreased significantly. In recent decades, Swiss timber construction, which is now highly technologised, has repositioned itself, and architecture and structural planning have come closer together and realised remarkable, pioneering projects. Timber construction is now the subject of urban spaces and must find new forms accordingly. The approaches to these new forms have so far been very different. Answering the question “What characterises timber construction?” therefore appears to be a key to the visibility and success of a forward-looking Swiss timber construction culture.

The Interpretation of the Modern Spirit of Chekhovs Drama on the Contemporary Stage -- Taking Butusov Theater as an Example

Chekhovs plays have long been very popular in modern theater, especially in the major theaters of Russia. Many theatrical masters have adapted his classic texts. However, some adaptations have a strong avant-garde and experimental color, and the creators consciousness is too strong. So it is easy to ignore the fundamental of the text, in other words, the modernity problem. This paper takes Russian director Yuri Butusovs adaptation of Chekhovs plays as an example to study how the contemporary drama stage interprets the spirit of modernity in the text. This paper applies the relevant theories, which are all reflected in the Butusov Theater, including Meyerholds cubist stage concept, the contextualizing cubism proposed by the British scholar Amy Skinner, and Bakhtins carnival theory. Butusov deeply explores the modern spirit of Chekhovs drama and presents it with his unique directing art, which is also an alternative expression of the classic text.

Religious Intetextuality in Jasim Mohammad Jasim's poetry

This paper deals with intertextuality as a critical literary phenomenon Known throughout history. Religious intertextuality in poetry is not out of this scope for this poet for he recollects texts from the past, applied the technique of intertextuality and presents them after endowing them with the spirit of modernism and making them open to the future according to a vision governed by poetic language, rich imagination, effective style and this is a revitalization of the religious heritage and a dialogue with it.This paper is only concerned with the texts with religious connotations in Jasim Mohammad Jasim's poetry in which he makes use of the Holy Qur'an, Hadith, Sufi doctrine and other religions. Some of the expressions with religious dimensions became material for his present texts as a source for enriching his poetic experience because they were rich with stories, teachings and moral lessons as well as their literary language of elevated style and accurate expressions. For these reasons they attracted the poet and tempted him to quote what enables him to come out with poetic texts of religious nature to satisfy readers, who long for the religious past, with literary, poetic art rich with feelings and emotions.

The State Circus in Chisinau - the first socialist modernist architectural object included in the Register of state protected monuments of the Republic of Moldova

Modernism represents one of the most global styles in the history of world culture, dominating almost the entire 20th century. In this context, the Republic of Moldova is no exception having a significant modernist heritage. Numerous projects, materialized in imposing public buildings, are important landmarks in the perception of the identity of our country’s capital during the soviet period. Their research leads to the revelation of the spirit of modernism and of the whole impression of the architectural objects of that period, and last but not least, to the awareness of their real value. Thus, the State Circus attracts the public attention through its artistic qualities: the proportions, the rigorous rhythm of the pillars on the facade, the plastic decorations, as well as through the particularity of representing the historical era in which it was built. The authors of the project, architects S. Şoihet and A. Kiricenko, introduce an expressive volumetric composition into the urban structure, whereas the plastic artists V. Rotari, P. Obuh, L. Yantsen and E. Saakov are preoccupied with emphasizing the playful character of the edifice. Legally unprotected until recently, the architecture of the edifice was in danger of being seriously altered by inappropriate and irreversible interventions. The first step in saving the socialist modernist architectural object is made by the B.A.C.U. Association, which, arguing about the importance of the edifice in the urban context succeeds in including it in the Register of State-protected monuments.

Memory, Media, and Modernity in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie: A Twenty-first Century Perspective

This article explores how effectively Tennessee Williams in The Glass Menagerie uses ‘memory’ to add new dramatic elements by recounting historical occurrences, ‘media’ to accurately depict people’s circumstances and an authentic picture of society, and ‘modernity’ through his characters that affected their lives in the play. In this study, a descriptive study design with a component of qualitative analysis is used to find out answers to three research questions based on “memory, media and modernity” in The Glass Menagerie, and get a credible solution to strengthen our arguments. The in-depth analysis reveals Williams’ concerns about middle-class people, society, and the office’s authority during this era of transition. Additionally, it underscores how The Glass Menagerie incorporates shards of memories, media, and modernity to exhibit a congenial depiction of a modern spirit that Williams shares with the common people and readers whose voices he intercepts. The article intends to see how far Williams accomplished his objectives in portraying the deterioration of values, culture, traditions, and socio-economic problems to bring new force and genre to American drama. The in-depth analysis is sufficient to deem the play a quintessential, play for readers of all ages, a “Plastic Glass” genre that blends the middle class, experiences, characters’ displays, and cultures. Finally, the discussion proves that the new genre is enlivened by the common people and eternal survivors of the 21st century.

Hadis Akhlak dan Filsafat Etika Taha Abdurrahman: Kritik Modernitas dan Tawaran Alternatif

The rate of development of science and information technology experienced by humans, more or less, leads them to rapid and instant life changes. Modernity with all the conveniences offered in it has an impact on humans, both positive and negative. However, modernity dissolves humans in conditions of social, economic and political inequality. Colonialism and imperialism are part of the many consequences of modernity. Seeing the phenomenon of life, Taha Abdurrahman, a Muslim thinker and philosopher from Morocco, conducted an in-depth study of the issue of modernity and modern human behavior with the provisions of the hadith akhlak that was said by the Prophet Muhammad. So this study tries to reveal (a) how relevant the hadith akhlak and ethical philosophy of Taha Abdurrahma; (b) what are the criticisms conveyed by Taha on the reality of modernity; and (c) what alternative offers for modernity according to Taha. This library research finds that there is a relevance and strong role of the hadith akhlak on the ethical philosophy of Taha. He critiqued the rationalism on which Western modernity was based. He also offers a spirit of modernity which is based on al-rusyd, al-naqdī and al-syumūl. Keywords : Ethics, Hadith Akhlak, Modernity Criticism, Taha Abdurrahman.

Theological Genealogies of Modernity: An Introduction

Theological Genealogies of Modernity: An Introduction

«Степь кочующих Киргиз-Кайсаков»: Казахская степь на российских картах XVIII – начала XIX века и раннемодерная картография как источник для изучения географических представлений о Центральной и Северной Азии

The article is a review of seven 18th and 19th century Russian maps, some of them are published for the first time, with some added notes on the nature of the early and mid – 19th century maps. The main purpose of the text is to reveal the main features and ways to represent the Qazaq steppe in Russian early modern cartography. Using the concept of a cartographic pattern, the author shows the predominance of generalized and simple ways of transmitting information. The purpose of this situation is the fact that the very knowledge of the Qazaq steppe was a subject of peripheral interest in Russian politics and culture of the period. Also standard Russian map makers were far from understanding how the cultural landscape of nomadic peoples could be displayed. The maps in question are not only a tool that forms and transmits a certain perception of space - it is, in a completely modern spirit, a tool for transforming space, turning it from a permeable and difficult to control into a barrier, regulated by the efforts of the army and bureaucracy. On these maps, we see «zero images» (nulevye obrazy) or «lacuna images» (obrazy-lakuny) of the images of the Qazaq steppe, these parts of the cartographic materials are left empty. On the overview Siberian general map of 1765, the space on the other side of the border lines is signed: «The steppe of the nomadic Kirgis-Kaisaks» (Step’ kochujushhih Kirgis-Kajsakov). This is not a refusal to transmit information at all, and not a too burdensome way to mark on maps a significant territory, about the structure of which and life within which Russian cartographers seem to know little. It is likely that this is one of the most common perceptions of the Qazaq steppe in Russian cartography of the 18th – first half of the 19th century.

The Spirit of Modernity and its Fate

AbstractThis article presents an interpretation of the rise of theological genealogies as a response to the sense in modern theology that modernity is afate. It suggests that theologians began to write genealogies to ease this sense that modernity is an inescapable condition. While it recognises that some of these genealogies have been partly successful in this endeavour, it also points out how a number of genealogies repeat some of the problematics they sought to escape. Finally, it provides some rudimentary reflections on how a theological engagement with history might be done better.

Representing National Culture on the Dance Stage: A Chapter from the History of Hungarian Ballet between the Two World Wars

In the case of a mixture of dance languages, especially in dance productions that are the result of a conscious creative process, the interpretation of the symbolic content and message of the dance language elements becomes important. It is in this context that the dance art endeavours of the 19th and 20th centuries in Hungary can be examined, which aimed at staging folk dance culture on the one hand, and at developing a modern language of dance art by using folk dance culture as a source of inspiration on the other. The underlying motivations behind these dance art endeavours could be different, as they could be born in the spirit of modernism or traditionalism, or they could be the manifestation of political-social artistic aspirations, or the two different motivations could overlap. Taking these aspects into account, my study seeks to answer the question of why and how the need for a stage work to function as a national representation of Hungarianness emerged in the history of Hungarian ballet.

Protestant Theology and Modernity in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands. By Arie L. Molendijk

Molendijk’s fine monograph covers the negotiation between theology and modernity in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century, as exemplified in a select number of representative thinkers like, among others, Isaac da Costa, Allard Pierson, Abraham Kuyper, and Abraham Kuenen. Other than Kuyper, the other figures have not received due attention in the Anglophone world. The running thread of Molendijk’s thesis is that, whether these theologians were embracing or critiquing modernity, they re-articulated theology in ways that not only incorporated but also propelled particular modern institutional and intellectual expressions forward. This thesis is advanced in the first three chapters by showing that Da Costa and Pierson, who in many ways opposed one another (the former was a devout Christian convert and an important representative of the Réveil; the latter progressed toward agnosticism and rejected the need for supernatural revelation), articulated their ideas with distinctly modern idiom. Both appealed to the necessity of individually appropriating one’s beliefs, both displayed a keen awareness of worldviews, and both were in agreement that Christianity or religion as such was incompatible with the spirit of modernity.

Narrating the everyday: iterative narration in Gertrude Stein's Three Lives and Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic

ABSTRACT In this article, I explore Gertrude Stein's unconventional use of “iterative” narration, Gérard Genette's term for passages that narrate habitual or recurring action, as a way to represent the repetitious life patterns of the working-class women in Three Lives (1909). While less frequently discussed than Stein's syntactical repetitions, I argue that Stein's use of the iterative is an essential aspect of her revolutionary modernist aesthetics; whereas Genette writes that iterative passages are typically “functionally subordinate” to individually narrated events, Three Lives foregrounds the iterative and thus insists on the importance of the seemingly trivial day-to-day experiences that make up Stein's characters’ lives. Following my examination of iterative narration within Three Lives, I turn to Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic (2011), positing that Otsuka's contemporary novel embodies the spirit of Stein's modernism through its own harnessing of iterative narration as a distinctly feminist literary form.

Beogradski opus arhitekte Milutina Jovanovića (1930-1941)

Milutin Jovanović belongs to the generation of architects who significantly contributed to the urban and architectural development of Belgrade between the two world wars. However, since there has been no adequate valorization of his creativity, a complete list of his achievements and basic biographical data have remained completely unknown. By reconstructing Jovanović's works, chronologically systematized data about his movement in the architectural profession was obtained. He began his professional engagement as an assistant at the architectural department of the Belgrade Technical Faculty, and later devoted himself to private practice. During the entire interwar period, Jovanović designed dozens of residential buildings and one hotel, and was also dedicated to other design tasks. He was hired by wealthy representatives of the middle class - merchants, clerks, doctors, entrepreneurs and many others, for whom he designed predominantly representative high-rise residential buildings throughout the central city core. In accordance with the developments on the architectural scene of that time, respecting the requests of the clients, his achievements were in two dominant stylistic directions - academicism and modernism. The discovery of buildings designed in the spirit of modernism is particularly significant, because for a long time it was considered that Jovanović's main style was academicism. Given the lack of personal legacy and complete historiographical sources, the research was based on studying of the fund of the Technical Directorate of the City of Belgrade stored in the Historical Archive of Belgrade. Therefore, this work is the first monographic review of the life and work of the architect Milutin Jovanović.

Catastrophic Motives in the Bruno Schulz’s Works

The work of the talented writer and artist, literary critic, philosopher, and epistolographer of the first half of the 20th century, Bruno Schulz, is consonant with today’s challenges. The article analyses the prose works of the artist from the perspective of catastrophic motives because until now scholars of Schulz have analysed the outlined problems either cursorily or in a comparative aspect — based on a comparison of the artistic works of different writers, so the relevance of the study is primarily connected with the expansion of Schulzological problems within the literary discourse. The content and development of the term “catastrophism” are analysed; the individual facts of the social life of the era to which Bruno Schulz belonged are characterized; the moments of the artist’s biography are outlined, which influenced the formation of his worldview, in particular, the elements of a catastrophic vision of the world; the peculiarities of Schulz’s catastrophism are clarified. To achieve the goal of the research, the following methods of literary analysis have been applied, such as biographical, sociological, as well as the elements of psychological and receptive analysis. The studies of Shultz’s prose show that the presence of catastrophic motives in Bruno Schulz’s creative work is completely natural and justified. The catastrophic tendencies of his works of fiction are revealed primarily through binary contrasting oppositions, through the prism of the “decency” of the old and the “spirit of modernity” of the new (industrial) city at different levels, such as periphery — center, man — mannequin, life — death, good — evil, beauty — mutilation, hope — despair, etc. It is emphasized: Schulz’s catastrophism is a special kind of catastrophism; an important feature of Bruno Schulz’s artistic catastrophic vision of the world is his optimism, at least Schulz’s tragedy has bright, joyful shades and hopes. The author concludes that the study of specific material, in particular Schulz’s catastrophism, will contribute to a thorough theoretical generalization of literary studies of the outlined issues. In the future, the literary and critical works and epistolaries of Bruno Schulz as interesting material for catastrophic, eschatological, apocalyptic, and even masochistic studies are seen.

Interior as a Scene in the Depictions of French Illustrators of Racine’s Works in the 18th Century: A Comparative Aspect

French literary illustration of the 18th century is studied from the point of view of depicting an interior as a locale. The problem of the influence of literary and visual sources on the formation of the image of an interior is studied through several series of illustrations for Racine’s Works in 18th century editions. The main sources of comparative research are the illustrations for J. Racine’s Berenice, engraved from drawings by French artists L. Cheron (1723), L.-F. Dubourg (1743), J. de Sève (1760), H.-F. Gravelot (1768), J.-J.-F. Lebarbier (1796). Reading Racine’s Berenice in French and Russian, reading critical works about “Racine’s space” helps to understand the image of locale in the playwright’s version. The events of Racine’s Berenice take place in the confined space of an ancient Roman palace. The author modernizes the locale, using the concepts of the French noble interior of his time — “cabinet”, “apartments”. The description of the scene has a minimum of detail, is contradictory and insufficient for literal depictions. The artists, following the example of the playwright, interpreted the scene in the spirit of modernity, but changed and supplemented the main and secondary details. As a rule, they depicted the reception area of the ceremonial apartments and accurately conveyed the styles of interior decoration (Grand style, Transition style, Neoclassicism, Directory style). The artists explained the episode and the play as a whole by means of compositional tools that had a wide semantic range. Comparison the illustrations among themselves and comparison the book engravings with architectural engravings shows the continuity of the artistic tradition and adherence to the academic rules of working with depiction. The artists repeated the compositions of similar illustrations and quoted the interior design projects of the 17th–18th centuries. The image of a locale in the illustration was directly dependent on visual sources, and not on the text. The method of depicting an interior in the illustrations was based on selective and arbitrary reflection of the text, actualizing the appearance of a locale, using the semantics of details and partial copying of samples.

카를로스 루이스 사폰의 『안개의 왕자』의 현대적 의미

The cultural logic of the contemporary century is skeptical of absolute ideology or belief in reproduction and seeks familiarity and diversity. The popular genre that the public enjoys is not a crisis, but rather makes the genre more rich. Modern society’s norms, life, daily life, and social system kept the illusion of a dark place behind memories and consciousness in the periphery, but The Prince of Mist introduces new areas lying just beneath the surface of civilized life into the novel genre. As a reaction to everyday things through supernatural events, the obsessive and impulsive flow of fear and twisted desire is the novel’s main theme. The novel has gained huge popularity as a fun and entertaining story with supernatural elements and romance. It is loved beyond the sarcasm of the past Gothic novel style. We talk lightly about social criticism, but inside it tells the story of our desire and the cultural spirit. It also transforms the typical structure of gothic novels to show aspects that criticize the typical modern spirit of reason and rationality. On the other hand, the novel also serves to enrich the dilapidated imagination in which most social practices are achieved by technical and practical values. This is because there are all kinds of things in the infinite universe that cannot be solved by human knowledge. It is also said that it is a world full of chaos and unknown uncertainty, such as a watch going backwards or a sculpture park full of mysteries and magical events.

The Masyumi Networks and the Proliferation of Islamic Higher Education in Indonesia (1945–1965)

Abstract This article addresses the roles played by Masyumi political leaders in fuelling dakwah activism in Indonesia and energizing the inception and proliferation of Islamic higher education institutions before and after the political turmoil faced by the Masyumi party. Islamic politics and education in Indonesia were intermingled and utilized by Masyumi leaders to promote Islam, foster the dignity of the ummah (Muslim community), and achieve Maysumi’s political vision via non-political activism. Using social-structure networks analysis, this article argues that the Masyumi networks and the spirit of Islamic modernism accelerated the spread of Islamic higher education in Indonesia, especially from 1945–1965. The Masyumi networks consisted of Muslim politicians, the intelligentsia, technocrats, noble families, and businesspeople.

『햄릿』 속 죽음의 장소를 통해 보는 죽음의 근대사

Based on the history of the Western view of death and the division of the times analyzed by French historian Philippe Ariès, this paper examines how the modernization of Western attitudes toward death is reflected in the ways the main characters of Hamlet mourn the dead and in the places where its characters died. Hamlet is a work that metaphorizes the emotional confusion and trauma experienced by the British Renaissance people during the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era with the main characters’ complex inner emotions. With mourning as the core theme, this work allows a multi-layered observation of the process of modernization of Western attitudes toward death which was in line with the personalization of modern minds. In this paper, by examining the place where Hamlet's father and Ophelia died and the way they were mourned according to Ariès' chronological classification, the process of “the Tame Death” being transformed into “the Death of the Self” and into “The Death of the Others” again; that is, the process of modernization of medieval death. This paper aims to read it again as a typical representation of the evolving modern spirit, not the remnants of the medieval spirit left to modern people, by reading Hamlet's mourning as a characteristic of the process of modernization of death based on Ariès' analysis.

Ezra Pound and Mang Ke (??): Image, Affect, and Consumerism in Western and Chinese Modernism

"Modernist" culture is a complex constellation of cultural phenomena—the qualities of economic goods based upon desire rather than need, aesthetics and experiential values, horizons of possible ways to understand the world, and social formations—that effect and assign value to human experience. The growing imbrication of consumerism with poetics can be seen both in the poetry of the late twentieth-century Chinese poet, Mang Ke (芒克, 1950-) and Ezra Pound (1885–1972) and their respective poetic movements: menglong (朦胧; "misty" or "obscure") poetry in China in the late twentieth century and the poetry of Imagism in the early twentieth century in the West. Juxtaposing these poets and movements shows that the spirit of modernism, once caught within material, historical and economic phenomena, does not belong to any particular culture. Its conjunction of relations among things creates the conditions of sensibilities for emerging affects imbricated with new modalities of feeling, understanding, and social organization.