Michael Saward
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579389
- eISBN:
- 9780191722950
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579389.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
In an era of disaffection from traditional political institutions and the rise of transnational politics, the need to rethink political representation – who speaks for whom and with what authority – ...
More
In an era of disaffection from traditional political institutions and the rise of transnational politics, the need to rethink political representation – who speaks for whom and with what authority – has taken on a new and practical urgency. This book offers and defends an innovative approach to the topic, built around the straightforward but versatile idea of the ‘representative claim’. Representation is defined broadly as a dynamic process of claim‐making, and not solely an institutional fact deriving from election. The book shows how the idea of the representative claim provides critical purchase where conventional approaches reach their analytical limits. The elaboration of the representative claim is conducted against the background of a systematic critique of prominent existing theories. The crucial aesthetic, cultural and performative sides of representation are developed as part of its political dimension, and the key concepts are put to work in examinations of cases of non‐elective representation, political parties, and the representation of women and ‘nature’. Concluding with a detailed account of what can make representative claims democratically legitimate, the book shows how our ideas of democracy are disrupted and revised when we embrace the notion of representation as the making and reception of claims.Less
In an era of disaffection from traditional political institutions and the rise of transnational politics, the need to rethink political representation – who speaks for whom and with what authority – has taken on a new and practical urgency. This book offers and defends an innovative approach to the topic, built around the straightforward but versatile idea of the ‘representative claim’. Representation is defined broadly as a dynamic process of claim‐making, and not solely an institutional fact deriving from election. The book shows how the idea of the representative claim provides critical purchase where conventional approaches reach their analytical limits. The elaboration of the representative claim is conducted against the background of a systematic critique of prominent existing theories. The crucial aesthetic, cultural and performative sides of representation are developed as part of its political dimension, and the key concepts are put to work in examinations of cases of non‐elective representation, political parties, and the representation of women and ‘nature’. Concluding with a detailed account of what can make representative claims democratically legitimate, the book shows how our ideas of democracy are disrupted and revised when we embrace the notion of representation as the making and reception of claims.
Mark Richard
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199239955
- eISBN:
- 9780191716881
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239955.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, Philosophy of Language
Is the point of belief and assertion invariably to think or say something true? Is the truth of a belief or assertion absolute, or is it only relative to human interests? Most philosophers think it ...
More
Is the point of belief and assertion invariably to think or say something true? Is the truth of a belief or assertion absolute, or is it only relative to human interests? Most philosophers think it incoherent to profess to believe something but not think it true, or to say that some of the things we believe are only relatively true. Common sense disagrees. It sees many opinions, such as those about matters of taste, as neither true nor false; it takes it as obvious that some of the truth is relative. This book argues that when it comes to truth, common sense is right, philosophical orthodoxy wrong. The first half of the book examines connections between the performative aspects of talk (what we do when we speak), our emotions and evaluations, and the conditions under which talk and thought qualifies as true or false. It argues that the performative and expressive sometimes trump the semantic, making truth and falsity the wrong dimension of evaluation for belief or assertion. Among the topics taken up are: racial slurs and other epithets; relations between logic and truth; the status of moral and ethical talk; vagueness, and the liar paradox. The book's second half defends the idea that much of everyday thought and talk is only relatively true or false. Truth is inevitably relative, given that we cannot work out in advance how our concepts will apply to the world. The book explains what it is for truth to be relative, rebuts standard objections to relativism, and argues that relativism is consistent with the idea that one view can be objectively better than another. The book concludes with an account of matters of taste and of how it is possible for divergent views of such matters to be equally valid, even if not true or false.Less
Is the point of belief and assertion invariably to think or say something true? Is the truth of a belief or assertion absolute, or is it only relative to human interests? Most philosophers think it incoherent to profess to believe something but not think it true, or to say that some of the things we believe are only relatively true. Common sense disagrees. It sees many opinions, such as those about matters of taste, as neither true nor false; it takes it as obvious that some of the truth is relative. This book argues that when it comes to truth, common sense is right, philosophical orthodoxy wrong. The first half of the book examines connections between the performative aspects of talk (what we do when we speak), our emotions and evaluations, and the conditions under which talk and thought qualifies as true or false. It argues that the performative and expressive sometimes trump the semantic, making truth and falsity the wrong dimension of evaluation for belief or assertion. Among the topics taken up are: racial slurs and other epithets; relations between logic and truth; the status of moral and ethical talk; vagueness, and the liar paradox. The book's second half defends the idea that much of everyday thought and talk is only relatively true or false. Truth is inevitably relative, given that we cannot work out in advance how our concepts will apply to the world. The book explains what it is for truth to be relative, rebuts standard objections to relativism, and argues that relativism is consistent with the idea that one view can be objectively better than another. The book concludes with an account of matters of taste and of how it is possible for divergent views of such matters to be equally valid, even if not true or false.
J.L. Austin
- Published in print:
- 1975
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198245537
- eISBN:
- 9780191680861
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198245537.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This work sets out the author's conclusions in the field to which he directed his main efforts for at least the last ten years of his life. Starting from an examination of his already well-known ...
More
This work sets out the author's conclusions in the field to which he directed his main efforts for at least the last ten years of his life. Starting from an examination of his already well-known distinction between performative utterances and statements, he finally abandons that distinction, replacing it with a more general theory of ‘illocutionary forces’ of utterances, which has important bearings on a wide variety of philosophical problems.Less
This work sets out the author's conclusions in the field to which he directed his main efforts for at least the last ten years of his life. Starting from an examination of his already well-known distinction between performative utterances and statements, he finally abandons that distinction, replacing it with a more general theory of ‘illocutionary forces’ of utterances, which has important bearings on a wide variety of philosophical problems.
Abby Day
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199577873
- eISBN:
- 9780191731143
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577873.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The book draws on empirical research exploring mainstream religious belief and identity in Euro-American countries. Starting from a qualitative study based in northern England, and then broadening ...
More
The book draws on empirical research exploring mainstream religious belief and identity in Euro-American countries. Starting from a qualitative study based in northern England, and then broadening the data to include Europe and North America, the book explores how people ‘believe in belonging’, choosing religious identifications to complement other social and emotional experiences of ‘belongings’. The concept of ‘performative belief‘ helps explain how otherwise non-religious people can bring into being a Christian identity related to social belongings. Further, it is argued that what is often dismissed as ‘nominal‘ belief is far from an empty category, but one loaded with cultural ‘stuff‘ and meaning. Day introduces an original typology of natal, ethnic and aspirational nominalism that challenges established disciplinary theory in both the European and North American schools of the sociology of religion that assert that most people are ‘unchurched‘ or ‘believe without belonging‘ while privately maintaining beliefs in God and other ‘spiritual‘ phenomena. Day creates a unique analysis and synthesis of anthropological and sociological understandings of belief and proposes a holistic, organic, multidimensional analytical framework to allow rich cross cultural comparisons. Chapters focus in particular on: methods for researching belief without asking religious questions, the acts of claiming cultural identity, youth, gender, the ‘social‘ supernatural, fate and agency, morality and a distinction between anthropocentric and theocentric orientations that provides a richer understanding of belief than conventional religious/secular distinctions.Less
The book draws on empirical research exploring mainstream religious belief and identity in Euro-American countries. Starting from a qualitative study based in northern England, and then broadening the data to include Europe and North America, the book explores how people ‘believe in belonging’, choosing religious identifications to complement other social and emotional experiences of ‘belongings’. The concept of ‘performative belief‘ helps explain how otherwise non-religious people can bring into being a Christian identity related to social belongings. Further, it is argued that what is often dismissed as ‘nominal‘ belief is far from an empty category, but one loaded with cultural ‘stuff‘ and meaning. Day introduces an original typology of natal, ethnic and aspirational nominalism that challenges established disciplinary theory in both the European and North American schools of the sociology of religion that assert that most people are ‘unchurched‘ or ‘believe without belonging‘ while privately maintaining beliefs in God and other ‘spiritual‘ phenomena. Day creates a unique analysis and synthesis of anthropological and sociological understandings of belief and proposes a holistic, organic, multidimensional analytical framework to allow rich cross cultural comparisons. Chapters focus in particular on: methods for researching belief without asking religious questions, the acts of claiming cultural identity, youth, gender, the ‘social‘ supernatural, fate and agency, morality and a distinction between anthropocentric and theocentric orientations that provides a richer understanding of belief than conventional religious/secular distinctions.
J. L. Austin
J. O. Urmson and G. J. Warnock (eds)
- Published in print:
- 1979
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780192830210
- eISBN:
- 9780191597039
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019283021X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This text collects all Austin’s published articles plus a new one, ch. 13, hitherto unpublished. The analysis of the ordinary language to clarify philosophical questions is the common element of the ...
More
This text collects all Austin’s published articles plus a new one, ch. 13, hitherto unpublished. The analysis of the ordinary language to clarify philosophical questions is the common element of the 13 papers. Chapters 2 and 4 discuss the nature of knowledge, focusing on ‘performative utterances’. The doctrine of ‘speech acts’, i.e. a statement may be the pragmatic use of language, is discussed in Chs 6 and 10. Chapters 8, 9, and 12 reflect on the problems the language encounters in discussing actions and consider the cases of excuses, accusations, and freedom. The ‘correspondence theory’, i.e. a statement is truth when it corresponds to a fact, is presented in Chs 5 and 6. Finally, Chs 1 and 3 study how a word may have different but related senses considering Aristotle’s view. Chapters 11 and 13 illustrate the meaning of ‘pretending’ and a Plato’s text respectively.Less
This text collects all Austin’s published articles plus a new one, ch. 13, hitherto unpublished. The analysis of the ordinary language to clarify philosophical questions is the common element of the 13 papers. Chapters 2 and 4 discuss the nature of knowledge, focusing on ‘performative utterances’. The doctrine of ‘speech acts’, i.e. a statement may be the pragmatic use of language, is discussed in Chs 6 and 10. Chapters 8, 9, and 12 reflect on the problems the language encounters in discussing actions and consider the cases of excuses, accusations, and freedom. The ‘correspondence theory’, i.e. a statement is truth when it corresponds to a fact, is presented in Chs 5 and 6. Finally, Chs 1 and 3 study how a word may have different but related senses considering Aristotle’s view. Chapters 11 and 13 illustrate the meaning of ‘pretending’ and a Plato’s text respectively.
Loriliai Biernacki
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195327823
- eISBN:
- 9780199785520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327823.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter looks at the links between “female” speech and the female body, arguing that female speech is frequently stereotypically coded as performative speech. A consequence of this stereotype of ...
More
This chapter looks at the links between “female” speech and the female body, arguing that female speech is frequently stereotypically coded as performative speech. A consequence of this stereotype of female speech is that it undermines the validity of women's speech. This chapter explores these stereotypes through comparing a myth in the Great Blue Tantra that tells the story of the birth of the feminine word, the feminine mantra, with two other examples of women's speech as connected to the body and as performative speech, within both an Indian context and in the contemporary U. S. This chapter suggests with the comparison an instance of recoding the stereotype, and with it, a recoding of the value attached to the body, matter, materiality, and Nature.Less
This chapter looks at the links between “female” speech and the female body, arguing that female speech is frequently stereotypically coded as performative speech. A consequence of this stereotype of female speech is that it undermines the validity of women's speech. This chapter explores these stereotypes through comparing a myth in the Great Blue Tantra that tells the story of the birth of the feminine word, the feminine mantra, with two other examples of women's speech as connected to the body and as performative speech, within both an Indian context and in the contemporary U. S. This chapter suggests with the comparison an instance of recoding the stereotype, and with it, a recoding of the value attached to the body, matter, materiality, and Nature.
Steven Kepnes
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195313819
- eISBN:
- 9780199785650
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313819.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This book could be summarized with the following proposition: Truth is liturgical. This means that truth is performative, communal, and temporal. Truth is also multi‐staged and processional; it takes ...
More
This book could be summarized with the following proposition: Truth is liturgical. This means that truth is performative, communal, and temporal. Truth is also multi‐staged and processional; it takes time to develop and unfold. Truth is also a hybrid multi‐shaped thing rather than a pure and univocal essence. Liturgical truth is philosophy, ethics, theology, art, poetry, music, and dance, all working together. Monotheistic liturgies tell us that truth is married to scripture. If truth is liturgical, this chapter suggests that perhaps it can be found in nonreligious liturgical forms such as the form of the dialogue or, as in ancient Greece, the “symposium.” The chapter concludes with a suggestion that group practices of reading scripture also have liturgical aspects. The study sessions of Scriptural Reasoning are then explored for the ways in which they exhibit liturgical truth.Less
This book could be summarized with the following proposition: Truth is liturgical. This means that truth is performative, communal, and temporal. Truth is also multi‐staged and processional; it takes time to develop and unfold. Truth is also a hybrid multi‐shaped thing rather than a pure and univocal essence. Liturgical truth is philosophy, ethics, theology, art, poetry, music, and dance, all working together. Monotheistic liturgies tell us that truth is married to scripture. If truth is liturgical, this chapter suggests that perhaps it can be found in nonreligious liturgical forms such as the form of the dialogue or, as in ancient Greece, the “symposium.” The chapter concludes with a suggestion that group practices of reading scripture also have liturgical aspects. The study sessions of Scriptural Reasoning are then explored for the ways in which they exhibit liturgical truth.
Mary E. McGann
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195176452
- eISBN:
- 9780199785308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176452.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The chapter's author approaches the subject of teaching rites ritually from the perspective of the engaged minister, the ritual leader, who is teaching the basics of ritual and liturgy to future ...
More
The chapter's author approaches the subject of teaching rites ritually from the perspective of the engaged minister, the ritual leader, who is teaching the basics of ritual and liturgy to future ceremonial leaders. The chapter's author comes to her task with an unexpected, but very modern, set of credentials above her degrees in theology and liturgical studies: more than a decade of participation in an African American Catholic community for an ethnographic study of the role of music in ritual life. She describes three ways of teaching rites ritually, each of which enables a particular kind of “ritual knowing” that is relevant for students at specific stages of their studies. The first, which fosters foundational ritual knowledge, is effective ecumenically, inviting students who are insiders to their own tradition to widen their perspectives on their own experience and to appreciate liturgical rites that are not their own. The second, which cultivates performative ritual knowledge, has taken shape in the need to teach students of her own denomination how to conduct their own rites. The third iteration focuses on scholarly ritual knowledge, which prepares doctoral students to become scholars and teachers in the field of liturgical studies.Less
The chapter's author approaches the subject of teaching rites ritually from the perspective of the engaged minister, the ritual leader, who is teaching the basics of ritual and liturgy to future ceremonial leaders. The chapter's author comes to her task with an unexpected, but very modern, set of credentials above her degrees in theology and liturgical studies: more than a decade of participation in an African American Catholic community for an ethnographic study of the role of music in ritual life. She describes three ways of teaching rites ritually, each of which enables a particular kind of “ritual knowing” that is relevant for students at specific stages of their studies. The first, which fosters foundational ritual knowledge, is effective ecumenically, inviting students who are insiders to their own tradition to widen their perspectives on their own experience and to appreciate liturgical rites that are not their own. The second, which cultivates performative ritual knowledge, has taken shape in the need to teach students of her own denomination how to conduct their own rites. The third iteration focuses on scholarly ritual knowledge, which prepares doctoral students to become scholars and teachers in the field of liturgical studies.
Beth Palmer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199599110
- eISBN:
- 9780191725371
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599110.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book explores the ways in which women writers utilized the powerful position of author-editor to perform conventions of gender and genre in the Victorian period. It examines Mary Elizabeth ...
More
This book explores the ways in which women writers utilized the powerful position of author-editor to perform conventions of gender and genre in the Victorian period. It examines Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat's magazines (Belgravia, Argosy, and London Society respectively) alongside their sensation fiction to explore the mutually influential strategies of authorship and editorship. The relationship between sensation's success as a popular fiction genre and its serialization in the periodical press was not just complexly reciprocal but also self-conscious and performative. Publishing sensation in Victorian magazines offered women writers a set of discursive strategies that they could transfer outwards into other cultural discourses and performances. With these strategies they could explore, enact and re-work contemporary notions of female agency and autonomy as well as negotiate contemporary criticism. Combining authorship and editorship gave these middle-class women exceptional control over the shaping of fiction, its production, and its dissemination. By paying attention to the ways in which the sensation genre is rooted in the press network this book offers a new, broader context for the phenomenal success of works like Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Ellen Wood's East Lynne. The book reaches back to the mid-nineteenth century to explore the press conditions initiated by figures like Charles Dickens and Mrs Beeton that facilitated the later success of these sensation writers. By looking forwards to the new woman writers of the 1890s the book draws conclusions regarding the legacies of sensational author-editorship in the Victorian press and beyond.Less
This book explores the ways in which women writers utilized the powerful position of author-editor to perform conventions of gender and genre in the Victorian period. It examines Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat's magazines (Belgravia, Argosy, and London Society respectively) alongside their sensation fiction to explore the mutually influential strategies of authorship and editorship. The relationship between sensation's success as a popular fiction genre and its serialization in the periodical press was not just complexly reciprocal but also self-conscious and performative. Publishing sensation in Victorian magazines offered women writers a set of discursive strategies that they could transfer outwards into other cultural discourses and performances. With these strategies they could explore, enact and re-work contemporary notions of female agency and autonomy as well as negotiate contemporary criticism. Combining authorship and editorship gave these middle-class women exceptional control over the shaping of fiction, its production, and its dissemination. By paying attention to the ways in which the sensation genre is rooted in the press network this book offers a new, broader context for the phenomenal success of works like Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Ellen Wood's East Lynne. The book reaches back to the mid-nineteenth century to explore the press conditions initiated by figures like Charles Dickens and Mrs Beeton that facilitated the later success of these sensation writers. By looking forwards to the new woman writers of the 1890s the book draws conclusions regarding the legacies of sensational author-editorship in the Victorian press and beyond.
Daniel H. Weiss
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199895908
- eISBN:
- 9780199949854
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199895908.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Having examined the purposes and functioning of Cohen’s style, the conclusion considers the philosophical implications of Cohen’s insistence that a performative reasoning through texts is necessary ...
More
Having examined the purposes and functioning of Cohen’s style, the conclusion considers the philosophical implications of Cohen’s insistence that a performative reasoning through texts is necessary for successful communication of religious concepts. Through its very style and form, Religion of Reason stands as a sharp critique of the distortions that arise from contemporary attempts to speak or write about religious concepts in an “overly consistent” manner, and it points toward the possibility of a mode of communication in which philosophy itself must become “scriptural.” Likewise, though not all inconsistencies are inherently rational, the example of Cohen’s text points toward a more general argument that paradox and a lack of theoretical consistency is to be an expected and necessary feature of any rational communication of religion.Less
Having examined the purposes and functioning of Cohen’s style, the conclusion considers the philosophical implications of Cohen’s insistence that a performative reasoning through texts is necessary for successful communication of religious concepts. Through its very style and form, Religion of Reason stands as a sharp critique of the distortions that arise from contemporary attempts to speak or write about religious concepts in an “overly consistent” manner, and it points toward the possibility of a mode of communication in which philosophy itself must become “scriptural.” Likewise, though not all inconsistencies are inherently rational, the example of Cohen’s text points toward a more general argument that paradox and a lack of theoretical consistency is to be an expected and necessary feature of any rational communication of religion.
Karen Zivi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199826414
- eISBN:
- 9780199919437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199826414.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, Democratization
This chapter introduces readers to the key debates about the relationship between rights and democracy that are explored throughout the work as a whole as well as to the philosophical framework that ...
More
This chapter introduces readers to the key debates about the relationship between rights and democracy that are explored throughout the work as a whole as well as to the philosophical framework that is developed to defend rights as a valuable language of democratic politics. Identifying several philosophical and political problems that have rendered rights a suspect language of democratic contestation, it makes the case for re-examining the relationship between rights and democracy rather than either too quickly dismissing or too heartily defending rights as consistent with democracy. The chapter draws on insights from speech act theory and democratic theory to develops a performative perspective on rights claiming and suggests that the democratic character of rights, their potential and their limits, becomes more visible when we understand rights as a performative utterances that shape as well as reflect our identity, our communities, and our understanding of politics. This chapter thus sets out the meaning of key terms, such as rights, rights claiming, and performativity, and establishes the importance of appreciating what speech act theorists call the perlocutionary rather than simply the illocutionary dimensions of speech acts.Less
This chapter introduces readers to the key debates about the relationship between rights and democracy that are explored throughout the work as a whole as well as to the philosophical framework that is developed to defend rights as a valuable language of democratic politics. Identifying several philosophical and political problems that have rendered rights a suspect language of democratic contestation, it makes the case for re-examining the relationship between rights and democracy rather than either too quickly dismissing or too heartily defending rights as consistent with democracy. The chapter draws on insights from speech act theory and democratic theory to develops a performative perspective on rights claiming and suggests that the democratic character of rights, their potential and their limits, becomes more visible when we understand rights as a performative utterances that shape as well as reflect our identity, our communities, and our understanding of politics. This chapter thus sets out the meaning of key terms, such as rights, rights claiming, and performativity, and establishes the importance of appreciating what speech act theorists call the perlocutionary rather than simply the illocutionary dimensions of speech acts.
Adam B. Seligman, Robert P. Weller, Michael J. Puett, and Bennett Simon
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195336009
- eISBN:
- 9780199868933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336009.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter begins with a serious consideration of the understandings of ritual in traditions that take it as central, especially Judaism and Confucianism. It argues that such traditions understand ...
More
This chapter begins with a serious consideration of the understandings of ritual in traditions that take it as central, especially Judaism and Confucianism. It argues that such traditions understand the world as fundamentally fractured and discontinuous, with ritual allowing us to live in it by creating temporary order through the construction of a performative, subjunctive world. This is a world “as if”, with ritual understood in its indexical qualities. The chapter continues with a general consideration of major contemporary understandings of ritual and their limitations. It questions the common contemporary reduction of ritual either to its functions or to its meanings. Instead, the chapter concentrates on the work of ritual to create alternative worlds.Less
This chapter begins with a serious consideration of the understandings of ritual in traditions that take it as central, especially Judaism and Confucianism. It argues that such traditions understand the world as fundamentally fractured and discontinuous, with ritual allowing us to live in it by creating temporary order through the construction of a performative, subjunctive world. This is a world “as if”, with ritual understood in its indexical qualities. The chapter continues with a general consideration of major contemporary understandings of ritual and their limitations. It questions the common contemporary reduction of ritual either to its functions or to its meanings. Instead, the chapter concentrates on the work of ritual to create alternative worlds.
Bryan Rennie
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394337
- eISBN:
- 9780199777358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394337.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter discusses the influence of Eliade’s Romanian Orthodox theological background on his understanding of religion. It particularly considers Eliade’s early (pre-India) writings, the possible ...
More
This chapter discusses the influence of Eliade’s Romanian Orthodox theological background on his understanding of religion. It particularly considers Eliade’s early (pre-India) writings, the possible influence of Nae Ionescu and Eliade’s Bucharest friends, and some previously published work on the subject. After establishing a series of consonances or homologies between background and understanding—such as icons as hierophanies—it considers to what extent the former might have determined the latter. Recognizing certain divergences, the conclusion is that Orthodox theology has not exerted a dominating influence upon Eliade in the sense of imposing dogmatic assumptions about the real/sacred upon him. Its ritualistic influence, nonetheless, enabled an understanding of religion that would not have been forthcoming given a different cultural background.Less
This chapter discusses the influence of Eliade’s Romanian Orthodox theological background on his understanding of religion. It particularly considers Eliade’s early (pre-India) writings, the possible influence of Nae Ionescu and Eliade’s Bucharest friends, and some previously published work on the subject. After establishing a series of consonances or homologies between background and understanding—such as icons as hierophanies—it considers to what extent the former might have determined the latter. Recognizing certain divergences, the conclusion is that Orthodox theology has not exerted a dominating influence upon Eliade in the sense of imposing dogmatic assumptions about the real/sacred upon him. Its ritualistic influence, nonetheless, enabled an understanding of religion that would not have been forthcoming given a different cultural background.
Samia Mehrez (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789774165337
- eISBN:
- 9781617971303
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774165337.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This unique interdisciplinary collective project is the culmination of research and translation work conducted by AUC students of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds who continue to witness ...
More
This unique interdisciplinary collective project is the culmination of research and translation work conducted by AUC students of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds who continue to witness Egypt's ongoing revolution. This historic event has produced an unprecedented proliferation of political and cultural documents and materials, whether written, oral, or visual. Given their range, different linguistic registers, and referential worlds, these documents present a great challenge to any translator. The contributors to this volume have selectively translated chants, banners, jokes, poems, and interviews, as well as presidential speeches and military communiqués. Their practical translation work is informed by the cultural turn in translation studies and the nuanced role of the translator as negotiator between texts and cultures. The chapters focus on the relationship between translation and semiotics, issues of fidelity and equivalence, creative transformation and rewriting, and the issue of target readership. This mature collective project is in many ways a reenactment of the new infectious revolutionary spirit in Egypt today.Less
This unique interdisciplinary collective project is the culmination of research and translation work conducted by AUC students of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds who continue to witness Egypt's ongoing revolution. This historic event has produced an unprecedented proliferation of political and cultural documents and materials, whether written, oral, or visual. Given their range, different linguistic registers, and referential worlds, these documents present a great challenge to any translator. The contributors to this volume have selectively translated chants, banners, jokes, poems, and interviews, as well as presidential speeches and military communiqués. Their practical translation work is informed by the cultural turn in translation studies and the nuanced role of the translator as negotiator between texts and cultures. The chapters focus on the relationship between translation and semiotics, issues of fidelity and equivalence, creative transformation and rewriting, and the issue of target readership. This mature collective project is in many ways a reenactment of the new infectious revolutionary spirit in Egypt today.
Maarten A. Hajer and Justus Uitermark
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199281671
- eISBN:
- 9780191713132
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281671.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
When Dutch filmmaker Van Gogh is murdered by an Islamist extremist, local politicians Cohen and Aboutaleb face the task of giving meaning to the murder. Their tolerant, pluralistic approach of ‘de ...
More
When Dutch filmmaker Van Gogh is murdered by an Islamist extremist, local politicians Cohen and Aboutaleb face the task of giving meaning to the murder. Their tolerant, pluralistic approach of ‘de boel bij elkaar houden’ (keeping things together) is publicly ridiculed by the so-called Friends of Theo. Protagonists and antagonists try to (counter-)script the meaning of the murder on constitutional and non-constitutional stages, using different repertoires to enact authority. The ruling media format privileges emotional repertoires over the factual genre of procedural assurance. The discourse analysis illuminates how the ‘soft’ approach of ‘de boel bij elkaar houden’ changes to include notions of tough action. Distinct divisions or roles between both politicians emerge. The chapter tries to make sense of the question: To what extend can the success of the administrators be attributed to their particular actions? It applies the notion of ‘performative habitus’ (embodied dispositions shaped over many previous years of symbolic labour) to transcend the dualism between the politician as a strategic actor and the politician as being determined by context; personal authority is a co-production of performative habitus and setting.Less
When Dutch filmmaker Van Gogh is murdered by an Islamist extremist, local politicians Cohen and Aboutaleb face the task of giving meaning to the murder. Their tolerant, pluralistic approach of ‘de boel bij elkaar houden’ (keeping things together) is publicly ridiculed by the so-called Friends of Theo. Protagonists and antagonists try to (counter-)script the meaning of the murder on constitutional and non-constitutional stages, using different repertoires to enact authority. The ruling media format privileges emotional repertoires over the factual genre of procedural assurance. The discourse analysis illuminates how the ‘soft’ approach of ‘de boel bij elkaar houden’ changes to include notions of tough action. Distinct divisions or roles between both politicians emerge. The chapter tries to make sense of the question: To what extend can the success of the administrators be attributed to their particular actions? It applies the notion of ‘performative habitus’ (embodied dispositions shaped over many previous years of symbolic labour) to transcend the dualism between the politician as a strategic actor and the politician as being determined by context; personal authority is a co-production of performative habitus and setting.
Vanessa Agnew
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195336665
- eISBN:
- 9780199868544
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336665.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Ancient beliefs in the power of music gained urgency during the mid to late 18th century. The period saw an efflorescence of Orpheus-themed musical works, including operas by Gluck, Mozart, and ...
More
Ancient beliefs in the power of music gained urgency during the mid to late 18th century. The period saw an efflorescence of Orpheus-themed musical works, including operas by Gluck, Mozart, and Haydn. Orpheus as archmusician also emerged as a key trope in aesthetic, literary, critical, and historical thought. Yet this widespread interest in musical utility (called Orphic discourse) seems to conflict with the notion of aesthetic autonomy that emerged around the same time. The confluence of these apparently antithetical positions casts doubt on the widespread view that there was an aesthetic-philosophical break between the 18th and 19th centuries. Instead, this book exposes the hidden instrumentality that is typically disavowed by aesthetic disinterest and concludes that musical utility is a site of discursive continuity within modernity. Focusing on the English traveler and music historian Charles Burney's 1772 journey through the Netherlands and central Europe — soon to be the home of aesthetic autonomy — the book examines the scholarly discussions and social practices that characterize the Enlightenment as an age of Orpheus. It argues that aesthetic autonomy went hand in hand with the late 18th-century insistence on music's moral, social, and political utility. It argues that the foregrounding of alterity, like the new historicization of music, arose within the context of the late 18th century's increased mobility and its burgeoning cross-cultural encounters. The traveler's exposure to new listeners and new musical vernaculars posed critical challenges to classical ideas about what music could do. Understanding the broader function of Orphic discourse thus necessitates a transnational approach that coheres with the cosmopolitan character of serious music and music scholarship. Such an approach exposes the ways in which Orphic discourse made claims about music acting at the margins in order to promote specific class, professional, and national interests.Less
Ancient beliefs in the power of music gained urgency during the mid to late 18th century. The period saw an efflorescence of Orpheus-themed musical works, including operas by Gluck, Mozart, and Haydn. Orpheus as archmusician also emerged as a key trope in aesthetic, literary, critical, and historical thought. Yet this widespread interest in musical utility (called Orphic discourse) seems to conflict with the notion of aesthetic autonomy that emerged around the same time. The confluence of these apparently antithetical positions casts doubt on the widespread view that there was an aesthetic-philosophical break between the 18th and 19th centuries. Instead, this book exposes the hidden instrumentality that is typically disavowed by aesthetic disinterest and concludes that musical utility is a site of discursive continuity within modernity. Focusing on the English traveler and music historian Charles Burney's 1772 journey through the Netherlands and central Europe — soon to be the home of aesthetic autonomy — the book examines the scholarly discussions and social practices that characterize the Enlightenment as an age of Orpheus. It argues that aesthetic autonomy went hand in hand with the late 18th-century insistence on music's moral, social, and political utility. It argues that the foregrounding of alterity, like the new historicization of music, arose within the context of the late 18th century's increased mobility and its burgeoning cross-cultural encounters. The traveler's exposure to new listeners and new musical vernaculars posed critical challenges to classical ideas about what music could do. Understanding the broader function of Orphic discourse thus necessitates a transnational approach that coheres with the cosmopolitan character of serious music and music scholarship. Such an approach exposes the ways in which Orphic discourse made claims about music acting at the margins in order to promote specific class, professional, and national interests.
Pieter A. M. Seuren
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199559473
- eISBN:
- 9780191721137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559473.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
The late emergence of speech‐act theory is sketched. The primary function of language is claimed to be the establishment of socially binding commitments with regard to a proposition. The concept of ...
More
The late emergence of speech‐act theory is sketched. The primary function of language is claimed to be the establishment of socially binding commitments with regard to a proposition. The concept of liability condition, next to truth condition, is introduced. All forms of sign‐giving stand under a socially binding force operator. Arguments are provided to show the linguistic reality of speech‐act operators.Less
The late emergence of speech‐act theory is sketched. The primary function of language is claimed to be the establishment of socially binding commitments with regard to a proposition. The concept of liability condition, next to truth condition, is introduced. All forms of sign‐giving stand under a socially binding force operator. Arguments are provided to show the linguistic reality of speech‐act operators.
Nomi Erteschik‐Shir
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199556861
- eISBN:
- 9780191722271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199556861.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Phonetics / Phonology
MON types an ‘uncertainty’ question and non‐typing MON adds ‘uncertainty’ to questions typed by an overt or silent performative. This paper accounts for the placement of MON in both these cases and ...
More
MON types an ‘uncertainty’ question and non‐typing MON adds ‘uncertainty’ to questions typed by an overt or silent performative. This paper accounts for the placement of MON in both these cases and also explains why V‐2 is not triggered when MON occurs sentence initially. The explanation rests on the idea that MON is linearized in the phonology as are other adverbs and that V‐2 is phonologically motivated.Less
MON types an ‘uncertainty’ question and non‐typing MON adds ‘uncertainty’ to questions typed by an overt or silent performative. This paper accounts for the placement of MON in both these cases and also explains why V‐2 is not triggered when MON occurs sentence initially. The explanation rests on the idea that MON is linearized in the phonology as are other adverbs and that V‐2 is phonologically motivated.
Angelos Chaniotis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265062
- eISBN:
- 9780191754173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265062.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter explores how the gamut of responses to the presence of an inscription has to include not just sight and touch but also imagination and vocalisation. Being meant to be read aloud, they ...
More
This chapter explores how the gamut of responses to the presence of an inscription has to include not just sight and touch but also imagination and vocalisation. Being meant to be read aloud, they convey a reader's voice as well as that of the inscription itself or that of the dead person commemorated on a gravestone. Even more immediate is the potential impact when a person's actual words are preserved and displayed. They may be in direct speech, illustrated by letters and confessions, or in indirect speech as records of manumissions, minutes of meetings, or jokes. They may alternatively be performative speech, in the form of acclamations, formal declarations, oaths, prayers or hymns; and can equally be reports of oral events such as meetings or even public demonstrations. They can also be couched in various forms of emotional language, whether uttered by individuals (graffiti, prayers or the edicts of angry rulers) or more collectively and formally in secular or religious acclamations, and even in decrees of state. A final section emphasises the need for practitioners of the discipline of epigraphy to be missionaries — to spread the word about the value of visible words.Less
This chapter explores how the gamut of responses to the presence of an inscription has to include not just sight and touch but also imagination and vocalisation. Being meant to be read aloud, they convey a reader's voice as well as that of the inscription itself or that of the dead person commemorated on a gravestone. Even more immediate is the potential impact when a person's actual words are preserved and displayed. They may be in direct speech, illustrated by letters and confessions, or in indirect speech as records of manumissions, minutes of meetings, or jokes. They may alternatively be performative speech, in the form of acclamations, formal declarations, oaths, prayers or hymns; and can equally be reports of oral events such as meetings or even public demonstrations. They can also be couched in various forms of emotional language, whether uttered by individuals (graffiti, prayers or the edicts of angry rulers) or more collectively and formally in secular or religious acclamations, and even in decrees of state. A final section emphasises the need for practitioners of the discipline of epigraphy to be missionaries — to spread the word about the value of visible words.
Ronald W. Langacker
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331967
- eISBN:
- 9780199868209
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331967.003.0013
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
A discourse consists of usage events, and in the usage based approach linguistic units are seen as being abstracted from such events. Discourse is fundamentally interactive and necessarily dynamic. ...
More
A discourse consists of usage events, and in the usage based approach linguistic units are seen as being abstracted from such events. Discourse is fundamentally interactive and necessarily dynamic. Abstracted units retain these properties to varying degrees. At both the semantic and the phonological pole, discourse unfolds in a number of channels: objective content, information structure, speech management; segmental content, prosody, gesture. Discourse presupposes an elaborate conceptual substrate which supports and makes coherent what is overtly expressed. One facet of this substrate is the context, including the speaker-hearer interaction and the ongoing discourse itself. Another is the viewing arrangement, i.e. the relation between the interlocutors and the situation described. Also involved are speech acts, based on culturally recognized scenarios of linguistic interaction; while typically covert, these can also be expressed by clauses used descriptively or as performatives (actual enactments of the scenarios). Closely related are vocatives and other kinds of expressive utterances. Being used for many purposes, discourse occurs in many spoken and written genres. Depending on the genre, various levels and dimensions of organization can be discerned. Important in conversation is organization into attentional frames: intonation groups each representing a single window of attention. As discourse proceeds, a conceptual structure is built and progressively updated. Discourse is most effective when it follows certain basic principles of structure building. Grammar is shaped by discourse, and grammatical structures serve particular discourse functions. Grammar includes not only conventional patterns for assembling complex expressions but also established ways of applying them to the ongoing discourse. Grounding is often effected in this manner.Less
A discourse consists of usage events, and in the usage based approach linguistic units are seen as being abstracted from such events. Discourse is fundamentally interactive and necessarily dynamic. Abstracted units retain these properties to varying degrees. At both the semantic and the phonological pole, discourse unfolds in a number of channels: objective content, information structure, speech management; segmental content, prosody, gesture. Discourse presupposes an elaborate conceptual substrate which supports and makes coherent what is overtly expressed. One facet of this substrate is the context, including the speaker-hearer interaction and the ongoing discourse itself. Another is the viewing arrangement, i.e. the relation between the interlocutors and the situation described. Also involved are speech acts, based on culturally recognized scenarios of linguistic interaction; while typically covert, these can also be expressed by clauses used descriptively or as performatives (actual enactments of the scenarios). Closely related are vocatives and other kinds of expressive utterances. Being used for many purposes, discourse occurs in many spoken and written genres. Depending on the genre, various levels and dimensions of organization can be discerned. Important in conversation is organization into attentional frames: intonation groups each representing a single window of attention. As discourse proceeds, a conceptual structure is built and progressively updated. Discourse is most effective when it follows certain basic principles of structure building. Grammar is shaped by discourse, and grammatical structures serve particular discourse functions. Grammar includes not only conventional patterns for assembling complex expressions but also established ways of applying them to the ongoing discourse. Grounding is often effected in this manner.
