Vera Tolz
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594443
- eISBN:
- 9780191725067
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594443.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book is about how intellectuals in early twentieth-century Russia offered a new and radical critique of the ways in which Oriental cultures were understood at the time. It shows that out of the ...
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This book is about how intellectuals in early twentieth-century Russia offered a new and radical critique of the ways in which Oriental cultures were understood at the time. It shows that out of the ferment of revolution and war a group of scholars in St Petersburg articulated fresh ideas about the relationship between power and knowledge and about Europe and Asia as mere political and cultural constructs, which anticipated the work of Edward Said and postcolonial scholarship by half a century. The similarities between the two groups were, in fact, genealogical. The book reveals that Said was indebted—via Arab intellectuals of the 1960s who studied in the Soviet Union—to the revisionist ideas of Russian Orientologists of the fin de siècle. But why did this body of Russian scholarship of the early twentieth century turn out to be so innovative? Should we agree with a popular claim of the Russian elites about their country's particular affinity with the ‘Orient’? There is no single answer to this question. The early twentieth century was a period when all over Europe a fascination with things ‘Oriental’ engendered the questioning of many nineteenth-century assumptions and prejudices. In that sense, the revisionism of Russian Orientologists was part of a pan-European trend. And yet, the book also argues that a set of political, social, and cultural factors, which were specific to Russia, allowed its imperial scholars to engage in an unusual dialogue with representatives of the empire's non-European minorities. It is together that they were able to articulate a powerful and long-lasting critique of modern imperialism and colonialism and to shape ethnic politics in Russia across the divide of the 1917 revolutions.Less
This book is about how intellectuals in early twentieth-century Russia offered a new and radical critique of the ways in which Oriental cultures were understood at the time. It shows that out of the ferment of revolution and war a group of scholars in St Petersburg articulated fresh ideas about the relationship between power and knowledge and about Europe and Asia as mere political and cultural constructs, which anticipated the work of Edward Said and postcolonial scholarship by half a century. The similarities between the two groups were, in fact, genealogical. The book reveals that Said was indebted—via Arab intellectuals of the 1960s who studied in the Soviet Union—to the revisionist ideas of Russian Orientologists of the fin de siècle. But why did this body of Russian scholarship of the early twentieth century turn out to be so innovative? Should we agree with a popular claim of the Russian elites about their country's particular affinity with the ‘Orient’? There is no single answer to this question. The early twentieth century was a period when all over Europe a fascination with things ‘Oriental’ engendered the questioning of many nineteenth-century assumptions and prejudices. In that sense, the revisionism of Russian Orientologists was part of a pan-European trend. And yet, the book also argues that a set of political, social, and cultural factors, which were specific to Russia, allowed its imperial scholars to engage in an unusual dialogue with representatives of the empire's non-European minorities. It is together that they were able to articulate a powerful and long-lasting critique of modern imperialism and colonialism and to shape ethnic politics in Russia across the divide of the 1917 revolutions.
Edward Ullendorff and Sebastian Brock
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263501
- eISBN:
- 9780191734212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263501.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Judah Benzion Segal (1912–2003), a Fellow of the British Academy, had a long career as a teacher of Semitic languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Segal’s ...
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Judah Benzion Segal (1912–2003), a Fellow of the British Academy, had a long career as a teacher of Semitic languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Segal’s principal interest was in Aramaic and Syriac, in addition to Hebrew and the other main Semitic tongues. Before his teaching career, he was employed in the Sudan Civil Service and, during World War II, his service was frequently behind the enemy lines in North Africa. He was educated at Magdalen College School, University of Oxford, and at St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge. One of Segal’s other abiding interests concerned the Jews of Cochin whose history he published in 1993. But it will probably be in the area of Aramaic studies that Segal will be best remembered in the academic world.Less
Judah Benzion Segal (1912–2003), a Fellow of the British Academy, had a long career as a teacher of Semitic languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Segal’s principal interest was in Aramaic and Syriac, in addition to Hebrew and the other main Semitic tongues. Before his teaching career, he was employed in the Sudan Civil Service and, during World War II, his service was frequently behind the enemy lines in North Africa. He was educated at Magdalen College School, University of Oxford, and at St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge. One of Segal’s other abiding interests concerned the Jews of Cochin whose history he published in 1993. But it will probably be in the area of Aramaic studies that Segal will be best remembered in the academic world.
Anne Witchard
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9789888139606
- eISBN:
- 9789882208643
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139606.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The cultural and social climate to which Lao She would respond in Er Ma was one both of hidebound retrenchment and outward-looking optimism, the latter thanks to the efforts of Binyon, Waley, and ...
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The cultural and social climate to which Lao She would respond in Er Ma was one both of hidebound retrenchment and outward-looking optimism, the latter thanks to the efforts of Binyon, Waley, and Pound, and a growing awareness of alternate aesthetic traditions that had begun to challenge the assumptions of British ruling culture. With the scholar, Clement Egerton, Lao She worked on a translation of the Ming dynasty masterpiece, Jin ping mei, published as The Golden Lotus (1939). The virtuosity of Jin Ping Mei's unknown author has recently been compared with the Dickens of Bleak House, the Joyce of Ulysses, and the Nabokov of Lolita. Until the canonization of modernist technique, the qualities of Chinese narrative fiction, namely the carnivalesque, the surreal, irony, parody, pluralistic viewpoints and irresolution or open-ended conclusions, were judged to be shortcomings or limitations by the tenets of objective realism. Working on the translation of Jin ping mei while devouring the newly published works of Conrad, Lawrence, Joyce, Huxley, and Woolf, Lao She was uniquely positioned to appreciate the formal significance of Chinese literary style and the qualitiesthat were beginning to be explored by Western writers in theirrejection of the dominant tradition of mimetic realism.Less
The cultural and social climate to which Lao She would respond in Er Ma was one both of hidebound retrenchment and outward-looking optimism, the latter thanks to the efforts of Binyon, Waley, and Pound, and a growing awareness of alternate aesthetic traditions that had begun to challenge the assumptions of British ruling culture. With the scholar, Clement Egerton, Lao She worked on a translation of the Ming dynasty masterpiece, Jin ping mei, published as The Golden Lotus (1939). The virtuosity of Jin Ping Mei's unknown author has recently been compared with the Dickens of Bleak House, the Joyce of Ulysses, and the Nabokov of Lolita. Until the canonization of modernist technique, the qualities of Chinese narrative fiction, namely the carnivalesque, the surreal, irony, parody, pluralistic viewpoints and irresolution or open-ended conclusions, were judged to be shortcomings or limitations by the tenets of objective realism. Working on the translation of Jin ping mei while devouring the newly published works of Conrad, Lawrence, Joyce, Huxley, and Woolf, Lao She was uniquely positioned to appreciate the formal significance of Chinese literary style and the qualitiesthat were beginning to be explored by Western writers in theirrejection of the dominant tradition of mimetic realism.
Shiona Airlie
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9789888139569
- eISBN:
- 9789888180134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139569.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Sir Reginald Johnston was initially in a relationship with Eileen Power, yet unfortunately their engagement was finally dissolved by Eileen. Thanks to his in-depth knowledge of China's affairs, he ...
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Sir Reginald Johnston was initially in a relationship with Eileen Power, yet unfortunately their engagement was finally dissolved by Eileen. Thanks to his in-depth knowledge of China's affairs, he was later appointed to the Chair of Chinese at the University of London's School of Oriental Studies. After having a long academic vacation in China, he returned to London to take up his post as professor. Also he managed to maintain strong bonds with Puyi, Japan's puppet ruler at that time. Johnston's support for Puyi was in fact made evident in his book Twilight in the Forbidden City, and he turned into a minor celebrity as his story reached a mass audience. At the end of the 1934–35 academic session, he offered to retire, and decided to make a pilgrimage to Manchuria and visit Puyi.Less
Sir Reginald Johnston was initially in a relationship with Eileen Power, yet unfortunately their engagement was finally dissolved by Eileen. Thanks to his in-depth knowledge of China's affairs, he was later appointed to the Chair of Chinese at the University of London's School of Oriental Studies. After having a long academic vacation in China, he returned to London to take up his post as professor. Also he managed to maintain strong bonds with Puyi, Japan's puppet ruler at that time. Johnston's support for Puyi was in fact made evident in his book Twilight in the Forbidden City, and he turned into a minor celebrity as his story reached a mass audience. At the end of the 1934–35 academic session, he offered to retire, and decided to make a pilgrimage to Manchuria and visit Puyi.
Angela Penrose
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198753940
- eISBN:
- 9780191815720
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198753940.003.0012
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History, Strategy
This chapter covers the period 1960–78. A readership in economics with reference to the Middle East at the London School of Economics and School of Oriental and African Studies was followed in 1964 ...
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This chapter covers the period 1960–78. A readership in economics with reference to the Middle East at the London School of Economics and School of Oriental and African Studies was followed in 1964 by taking up the first chair of economics with special reference to Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Edith developed the new department and co-founded the Journal of Development Studies. She travelled extensively, particularly in the Middle East, where she taught and advised at the American Universities of Beirut and Cairo. In 1978, with E. F. Penrose, she published Iraq: International Relations and National Development, a comprehensive study of the political and economic development of the state of Iraq. She contributed to public bodies including the British Social Science Research Council and the Overseas Development Institute, the Commonwealth Development Corporation, the Monopolies Commission, and the Sainsbury Committee.Less
This chapter covers the period 1960–78. A readership in economics with reference to the Middle East at the London School of Economics and School of Oriental and African Studies was followed in 1964 by taking up the first chair of economics with special reference to Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Edith developed the new department and co-founded the Journal of Development Studies. She travelled extensively, particularly in the Middle East, where she taught and advised at the American Universities of Beirut and Cairo. In 1978, with E. F. Penrose, she published Iraq: International Relations and National Development, a comprehensive study of the political and economic development of the state of Iraq. She contributed to public bodies including the British Social Science Research Council and the Overseas Development Institute, the Commonwealth Development Corporation, the Monopolies Commission, and the Sainsbury Committee.
