Theoretical Writings Research Articles

György Lukács and the Eighteenth-Century Novel

AbstractThis article explores György Lukács’s reflections on the relationship between the eighteenth-century novel and early modern capitalism. As such, it offers a critical overview of Lukács’s treatment of this subject in two major works –The Theory of the NovelandThe Historical Novel – in the process, focusing on the evolution of his approach as a literary critic and contextualising this in relation to his wider theoretical writings. Ultimately, it seeks to demonstrate how the later Lukács’s critical approach differs from contemporary criticism dealing with the same subject, in particular concerning his engagement with the ramifications of his analysis for the present.

Sonic Placemaking: (Re)Creating Place as a Comprehensive Compositional Practice

This paper is focused on the development of a large-scale personal compositional practice centered around the concept of placemaking. Its content is focused on the relationship between data analysis, data sonification, and musical structure in the development of art which engages in a practice which I refer to as ‘sonic placemaking.’ In the end, this research intends to put this artistic practice in a space to interrogate the relationship between art and social change, both on small and large scales. The different sections of the paper will provide context and support for my practice's conceptual and philosophical background, drawing on related theoretical writings in geography, sociology, fine art, and composition while guiding the reader through my process in executing these concepts through works of multimedia art and acoustic composition — and, at the same time, actively questioning the ability of this process to influence social change and worldmaking.

Gender, Body and Subjectivity: A Study of Ballroom Gender Culture from the Perspective of Post-Modern Gender Theory

With the in-depth discussion of individual independence and self-consciousness in the post-modern social context, the construction of social identity has increasingly become an important part of individuals seeking their own interests and the legitimacy of existence. The problem of social identity essentially points to social stratification and the flow of social structure, and it is social culture and mass culture that play a key role in it. Corresponding to the mainstream mass culture, the minority culture and subculture accommodate the marginalized groups. Among them, ballroom culture is an important foundation for homosexual and other sexual minorities and vulnerable groups to resist the mainstream cultural discipline. Ballroom provides certain material and spiritual support for the marginalized vulnerable groups in society, which is the cultural space for the survival of sexual minorities. This article attempts to start from the theoretical writings of Foucault, Butler and other scholars in postmodern gender theories, and explore the corresponding issues of gender, body symbols and subject identity involved in ballroom culture.

The Entangled Imagination: W.B. Yeats’ “Moods” and the Psychologization of Magic

Among modern practitioners of magic, the “psychologization of magic” has become a common strategy to adapt practices such as rituals of invocation to naturalistic thought. In this article, I discuss what was probably the most elaborate attempt to bridge the gap between the magic of the past and magic suited for the present that took place within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1888–1903). Approaching the Order’s teachings through the lens of contemporaneous literary discourse, the Irish poet and magician William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) attempted to consolidate supernaturalist and naturalist understandings of magic throughout the 1890s. In 1892, he made the concept of the “immortal moods” a key to both his poetry and his magical practice. Evoked through symbols in a ritual or a poem, these moods would descend “like a faint sigh into people’s minds” and move them to action, causing “all great changes in the world.” Yeats explored this concept in theoretical writings, poetic experiments, and his ritual practice, finding his own imagination entangled with past imaginations. Serving a brief term as the Golden Dawn’s Imperator and Instructor in Mystical Philosophy in 1901, he condensed the insights gained from this work in the doctrines of the “great mind and great memory.” Presenting a study of Yeats’ psychology of the universal mind, this article shows how his amalgamation of literary and folkloristic theorizing paved the way to connect magical and poetic practice to the emerging psychological discourse.

International Gestalt Training Workshop and Conference

International Gestalt Training Workshop and Conference

Psychopathology and Atmospheres: Neither Inside Nor Outside

Psychopathology and Atmospheres: Neither Inside Nor Outside

A Burglar of the Better Sort: Poems, Dramatic Works, Theoretical Writings

A Burglar of the Better Sort: Poems, Dramatic Works, Theoretical Writings

“The Moving Horizon Of Classless Harmonies” In Darko Suvin’s Poetry

The article discusses selected poetry by Darko Suvin against the background of his theoretical writings about science fiction, utopia and poetry. It argues that Suvin’s poetry estranges the ideological view of the present and history as an inevitable reproduction of injustice and alienation. The focus is on several poems included in the collections The Long March: Notes on the Way 1981–1984 (1987) and Defined by a Hollow: Essays on Utopia, Science Fiction, and Political Epistemology (2010), as well as in “Three Long Poems 2000–2016” (2016) and “Poems of Old Age (2002–17)” (2017) available on the author’s website.

A szabadságért való küzdelem egyik lehetséges előzményéről: forradalmak a közigazgatás szolgálatában : Bibó István és Polányi Mihály kritikus szemléletéről

Modern public administration was formed in the crossfire of revolutions. István Bibó and Mihály Polányi interpreted the modern-day revolutions and their consequences starting from original problem statements, which had a decisive influence on the thinking about the nature of public administration and the development of public administration models that had an impact on entire generations. How can the ethos of the revolution be kept under the yoke of public administration? How can the interaction between the revolution and public administration be described? The analysis of the revolutionary theoretical writings of István Bibó and Mihály Polányi seeks answers to these questions.

Einbildungskraft (Imagination)

Einbildungskraft (imagination) is a multifaceted mental faculty in Goethe’s theoretical writings and poetic works that is non-systematic and rich in aporias. At work in both cognitive processes and artistic production, it becomes a defining concept in Goethe’s creative understanding of natural and aesthetic processes. Einbildungskraft serves as a faculty that presides over nature, the human mind, and the arts as a source of interdisciplinary knowledge. As a pre-noetic power, moreover, it also manifests the poietic force of language. By creatively expanding the Kantian distinction between the productive and reproductive imagination, Goethe theorizes a third kind of Einbildungskraft at work in poetic language with an internal law (Gesetzlichkeit) that “circumspectively surveys” the inner and outer worlds. As a kind of analogical thinking, this “umsichtige Einbildungskraft” (surveying imagination) participates in cognitive processes by actively elaborating thought, affect, vision, and memory. And as an artistic power, it mirrors in metaphorical language the organic forces of nature, which share the same principles of human life: synthesis, expansion, and transformation. According to Goethe, Einbildungskraft is the faculty responsible for shaping perceptual inputs, affects, memories, and mental images into artistic and verbal forms, thereby reconfiguring all the fragmented pieces of existence into an organic system that represents reality in its ontological essence.

Wechselseitigkeit (Reciprocity)

Wechselseitigkeit (reciprocality, mutuality) refers to Goethe’s interactive understanding of human and non-human relations. In its attributive inflection wechselseitig, which can be variously rendered as reciprocal, mutual, alternate, interchangeable, or two-way, the concept mediates the inexorable polarities of life. As a vital “force of attraction” (Anziehungskraft) between contrasting phenomena, these Goethean oppositions operate within both nature and the human world, as when the narrator claims in Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809; Elective Affinities), “[j]ede Anziehung ist wechselseitig” (WA 1.20:282; Every attraction is reciprocal). As in this novel, wechselseitig in Goethe’s theoretical writings configures assemblages of shared feelings, actions, or close relationships between two or more entities. And whether they are inter-subjective or intercultural, these reciprocal interactions typically involve an order of exchange between opposing sides (Seiten) that give of themselves in mutual enhancement or decline. Grounded in change (Wechsel) and linked to such cognate compounds as Wechselspiel (alternate play, fluctuation), Wechselwirkung (reciprocal effect, mutual influence), and Wechselblick (reciprocal gaze), the ascription also at times highlights an ethics of interaction within heterological relations of parity for the purpose of producing intensified or enhanced (gesteigerte) outcomes. Ultimately, the lexeme configures mediations of overlapping and interdependent systems that operate within science, society, and aesthetics, while also illuminating post-Kantian subject-object relations.

The Development of Physical Diagnosis: Historical Perspectives

The history of physical diagnosis started with Hippocrates and his school. History taking, inspection, palpation, and sometimes immediate auscultation and examination of the urine are fundamental diagnostic tools. The Hippocratic Corpus and Galen’s authoritative theoretical writings dominate medical thinking for over 1000 years. Clinical examination advances through Vesalius and Morgagni’s discoveries of human dissection (1543) and pathologic anatomy (1761) respectively. The Vienna school through Auenbrugger introduces percussion in 1760. The Paris school formally establishes physical diagnosis with the invention of the stethoscope by Laennec in 1816.

Music Theory in Serbia: Tracing the Legitimation of the Disciplinary Identity

In comparison to the (Western) European tradition, the development of music theory in Serbia has been quite short. Milan Milovuk’s works, dating from the 1860s, were the first published theoretical writings in Serbian. Nevertheless, this development was substantial, leading from basic music theory in Milovuk’s pioneering works to an interdisciplinary field of research that is fully integrated into today's global map of the discipline. Through this expansion, the status reconfiguration of music theory in Serbia took place from propaedeutics to an autonomous scientific field. However, the transformation of the discipline was not the subject of scientific research until recently. The questions about the nature of a musical-theoretical work, on what basis and with what convictions it is carried out, what kind of knowledge it produces, and what the impact of that knowledge is can be considered an exception in music theory writings in Serbian. Likewise, the legitimisation of certain types of musical-theoretical work about the discipline as a whole or its relevant parts has only recently become represented in our scientific literature. In this article, I investigate the reasons for the indicated epistemological certainty of music theory in Serbia and study the traces of its disciplinary legitimation in both diachronic (historical-developmental) and synchronic (theoretical–conceptual and methodological-epistemological) perspectives.

More-than photography and sculpture: a diffractive reading

In historical and theoretical writings on photography and sculpture, the two media are mostly addressed separately, with some points of overlap. The aim of this article is to examine artworks by contemporary artists Rachel de Joode and artist duo Nerhol from the hypothesis that they are not either photography or sculpture, but both and even more. They occupy new spaces, both material/physical and conceptual, reaching dimensions that are more-than: more than photography and more than sculpture. I aim for a renewed understanding of these media through diffractive reading, an approach with roots in feminist and new materialist discourse. Diffractive reading is about understanding things through each other, rather than finding meaning through preconceived static oppositions. As the artworks analyzed are understood as material-discursive practices, the theoretical and historical backgrounds of both photography and sculpture become increasingly relevant. How can and how should photography and sculpture be theorized as expanding fields? How do their ways of making meaning differ from each other and how do they converge? Through diffractive reading, photography and sculpture are not understood as two separate strands of practice coming together, but rather as manifestations of hybrid identities within the same artwork.

‘Some Disturbance to the Ear when the Voices Enter’: Invertible Canons at the Octave in Motets by Zarlino and Willaert

Taking as a starting point Gioseffo Zarlino’s concerns in book III, chapter 28 of his Le istitutioni harmoniche about imitative voice entries at the second and other dissonant intervals, this article identifies the little-known compositional technique of invertible canon at the octave in motets by Zarlino and Adrian Willaert. A detailed investigation of these motets provides opportunities to critically appraise Zarlino’s compositional achievements in relation to the constraints of this canonic technique. Zarlino’s approaches are then situated against the novel and thorough-going ways in which his mentor Adrian Willaert employed the same canonic technique. The results of this investigation also draw attention to connections between Zarlino’s theoretical writings and his compositional practice. Through insights into deep underlying compositional principles operating across a selection of works, this study provides new understanding of the history of canon as practised by two eminent sixteenth-century musicians who were central to its development and transmission.

Reassessing the Plagal Cadence in Byrd and Morley

Many sixteenth-century contrapuntal works include prominent “plagal” cadences—phrase- and section-ending passages with bass descent by fourth or ascent by fifth. But these plagal cadences lack the characteristic melodic formulas that were essential for defining other cadences. Accordingly, sixteenth-century theorists mostly declined to describe them, and they remain problematic for contemporary analysts who have not reached consensus on the origins, purpose, or tonal focus of these cadences. This article presents new evidence from the vocal music of William Byrd and the theoretical writings of Thomas Morley of a nascent theory of plagality in late-sixteenth-century England. Morley’s extensive catalog of cadences—famously copied from Tigrini—includes a number of plagal cadences that were not found in his source. Instead, Morley’s supplementary plagal cadences reflect the variety of cadential structures in contemporary practice, as exemplified by the music of Byrd, Morley’s teacher. The article identifies three distinct uses of plagality in Byrd’s corpus: terminal plagal cadences, terminal cadences to the fifth degree, and phrase-bisecting cadences to the fifth degree.

Rhythmic Notation in Plainchant from Sixteenth-Century Chaumont?

Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century chant manuscripts from the collegiate church of St. John the Baptist in Chaumont, France, have a notational anomaly: among the standard features of square notation, graphically elongated forms are used. These signs, often two to three times the length of a standard square, are frequently found at the ends of words and sometimes in combination with other neumes. The use of the signs suggests that their presence is not merely space-filling or ornamental, but rather, that they must have been intended to influence some aspect of how the chant was sung. Using a series of six criteria alongside contemporary music theoretical writings, I investigate the use of the sign by the church’s scribes and propose likely interpretations.

Dionysian Fury and Vibrating Voice

Abstract This article concerns Hugo Ball’s artistic practice in performing arts, extending from his prewar years in Expressionist theater to his performances at the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916–1917. In it, I examine how discourses on the crisis of modernity emerge in Ball’s theatrical practice, focusing on the performer’s physical presence in Ball’s performances and theoretical writings. To scrutinize these themes in a wider context of political and cultural discourses on modernity, I discuss the notions conceptualized by Ball and other avant-gardists concerning time and history, illustrating Ball’s view on modernity and German society while providing insight into his performative practice.

‘The whole fragment’: Fragments and ethics in the poetry of Ann Lauterbach

Abstract This essay reads the poetry of Ann Lauterbach, from the 1990 s to the present day, tracing the development of her central poetic concept of ‘the whole fragment’. Via close readings of exemplary works, the analysis is supported by her theoretical writings, essays and correspondence, and by archival material. The essay evidences ‘the whole fragment’ as a poetic methodology focused on flaws, ruptures, and transformations. It considers how loss and otherness catalyse the aporetic proclivity of Lauterbach’s poetry in the 1990 s, and analyses emergent formal ‘constellations’ and ‘reels’ as manifestations of ‘the whole fragment’. It then isolates an ethical turn for ‘the whole fragment’ in her poetry of the 2000 s, and traces its renewal through her most recent publications, up to 2018. Following this, it makes several critical postulations. Referencing concepts from Maurice Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas, it analyses Lauterbach’s responses to 9/11 and the Other, and evaluates her ethical poetry of ‘disaster’. The essay’s conclusion distinguishes Lauterbach’s developments from contemporary practices of the ‘open’ text or ‘poethics’, in order to demonstrate the integrity, importance, and distinctiveness of her œuvre in contemporary American poetry.

"Angela's psych squad": Black psychology against the American carceral state in the 1970s.

This article examines the duality of the Black psychology movement in the United States as both a distinctly American and a postcolonial approach to mental health. The Westside Community Mental Health Center in San Francisco served as the organizational hub for the Association for Black Psychologists (ABPsi) in the 1970s. The Westside clinicians understood forensic psychology as a kind of preventative care as California, more so than any other state, was seduced by the eugenic dream of human improvement through therapeutic interventions in schools and prisons intended to correct the wayward deviant. Their community's mental wellbeing required dismantling the interlinked disciplinary apparatus which disproportionately surveyed, tracked, and confined young Black men. These psychologists mounted a legal challenge to the use of intelligence testing to sort Black children in schools, seeking to replace standardized tests with "dynamic assessments" inspired by Israeli psychologist Reuven Feuerstein's work with refugee children. They consulted on the voir dire process in the highly politicized Angela Davis trial to minimize the presence of racially prejudiced jurors. They offered expert testimony on the psychological damage of solitary confinement on behalf of prison activists. The Westside team artfully developed and deployed the psychological concept of "bias" in their confrontations with local manifestations of the American carceral state. In their theoretical writings, these psychologists reflected upon their historical positionality, understanding themselves as products of the decolonial moment. Bay Area encounters with Third World internationalism, the Black Panther Party (BPP), the Nation of Islam, and community-led substance abuse programs shaped clinical care at Westside and inspired the Afrocentric consciousness many came to espouse. ABPsi initially had a significant impact on the historically white American Psychological Association's training practices. However, the two organizations split over the IQ controversy at a moment when psychologists became increasingly enmeshed in the criminal justice system.