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Tag Archives: 2009 Issue 4
Review: Media Discourse and the Yugoslav Conflicts. Representations of Self and Other
Pål Kolstø (Ed.) Farnham, Burlington: Ashgate, 2009. by Paul C. Bott The relevance of mass media in conflicts has got much attention by the academia over the last years. The anthology edited by Pål Kolstø presents important findings of a research project conducted by The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages at the [...]
Review: Political representation
Frank Ankersmit Stanford: Stanford U Press, 2002 By Peter Csigo In this book review, my aim is to present Frank Ankersmit’s aesthetic theory of democratic representation, as it has been deployed in his book ‘Political Representation’. The reason why I have undertaken the unconventional task of reviewing a seven years old work is my conviction [...]
Review: Screening sex
Linda Williams Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2008 By Frederik Dhaenens Linda William’s Screening Sex is undoubtedly indebted to the legacy of Michel Foucault. In 1976, he stressed that there is no essential truth and fixed meaning in relation to human sexuality. How one experiences and/or expresses sexual desires depends upon a specific time [...]
Review: Modes of Spectating
Alison Oddey and Christine White Bristol and Chicago: Intellect, 2009 By Joke Beyl Modes Of Spectating offers the reader a refreshing look on the way art and research can converge. Given the fact that most of the contributions originate from, on the one side, researchers who are also artistically active and, on the other side, [...]
Review: Defending critique and criticizing its defenders
Til Forsvar for Kritikken. Willig, Rasmus Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag, 2007. By Tina Askanius Sociology has neglected its primary duty as the critical watchdog in society and has been reduced to a fragmentized, shallow discipline lacking teeth as well as clout in the general public sphere. As a consequence, critical theory is left disarmed and [...]
Persecution and the Art of Critique: Leo Strauss between Secularism and Religion
In his 1983 essay ‘Secular Criticism,’ Edward Said claimed that criticism is “always situated,” “skeptical,” and “secular,” suggesting that the critic always acknowledges that she is situated in an existing cultural and social context, while maintaining a skeptical distance from religious commitments (Said, 1983: 26). Questioning Said’s characterization, the anthropologist Talal Asad has asked just [...]
Post feminism in popular culture: A potential for critical resistance?
1. Introduction ‘Post feminism’ has become one of the most fundamental, yet contested notions in the lexicon of feminist media studies and cultural studies because of its different interpretations among scholars (for an overview see Genz, 2006; Lotz, 2001; Tasker & Negra, 2005). In literature, three dominant but diverging visions on the concept are visible: [...]
When Art Becomes Critical Practice: The Village of Arts and Humanities
Critique needs to be thought not solely in abstract terms, but in the material practices of culture. As more small and medium scale artistic interventions take place in cities across the world, how are the interstices of our urban spaces offering up possibilities for living and doing politics differently? What are the conditions of possibility [...]
Macht Kaputt Was Euch Kaputt Macht: On the history and the meaning of the Black Block
On the morning of July 28th 1981, in a coordinated action involving hundreds of police officers, a large squat was evicted and more than 30 private homes were raided in and around the area of Frankfurt am Main. Of the dozens arrested, six were charged with founding and membership in a ‘criminal organization’. The name [...]
Review: Social Philosophy after Adorno