Facets of Modernity

Facets of Modernity
Author: Dmitri Nikulin
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1786615061

What does it mean to be human in modernity? This book examines being human, in its theoretical, practical, and productive aspects, not in abstraction from historical, social, and political settings, but rather as set in concrete historical and material circumstances. Through the analysis and close reading of a number of texts of the modern thinkers, which include those of Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Kracauer, Heidegger, Benjamin, Hans Jonas and Agnes Heller, it demonstrates that the complexity and variety of the human experience is grounded in the modern subjectivity, which establishes itself as universal, rational, autonomous, and necessary. Such a subjectivity is characterised as self-legislating or establishing the universal moral law and is further defined by historicity, or the interpretation of its actions as conditioned by the previous and current social and political circumstances. The book then shows that the multiple facets of modernity make the experience of being human fascinating, complicated and ultimately unique.

Five Faces of Modernity

Five Faces of Modernity
Author: Matei Călinescu
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1987
Genre: Avant-Garde (Aesthetics)
ISBN: 9780822307679

Five Faces of Modernity is a series of semantic and cultural biographies of words that have taken on special significance in the last century and a half or so: modernity, avant-garde, decadence, kitsch, and postmodernism. The concept of modernity--the notion that we, the living, are different and somehow superior to our predecessors and that our civilization is likely to be succeeded by one even superior to ours--is a relatively recent Western invention and one whose time may already have passed, if we believe its postmodern challengers. Calinescu documents the rise of cultural modernity and, in tracing the shifting senses of the five terms under scrutiny, illustrates the intricate value judgments, conflicting orientations, and intellectual paradoxes to which it has given rise. Five Faces of Modernity attempts to do for the foundations of the modernist critical lexicon what earlier terminological studies have done for such complex categories as classicism, baroque, romanticism, realism, or symbolism and thereby fill a gap in literary scholarship. On another, more ambitious level, Calinescu deals at length with the larger issues, dilemmas, ideological tensions, and perplexities brought about by the assertion of modernity.

Sources of the Self

Sources of the Self
Author: Charles Taylor
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 628
Release: 1992-03-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521429498

Charles Taylor's latest book sets out to define the modern identity by tracing its genesis.

Modernity and Self-Identity

Modernity and Self-Identity
Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2013-04-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0745666485

This major study develops a new account of modernity and its relation to the self. Building upon the ideas set out in The Consequences of Modernity, Giddens argues that 'high' or 'late' modernity is a post traditional order characterised by a developed institutional reflexivity. In the current period, the globalising tendencies of modern institutions are accompanied by a transformation of day-to-day social life having profound implications for personal activities. The self becomes a 'reflexive project', sustained through a revisable narrative of self identity. The reflexive project of the self, the author seeks to show, is a form of control or mastery which parallels the overall orientation of modern institutions towards 'colonising the future'. Yet it also helps promote tendencies which place that orientation radically in question - and which provide the substance of a new political agenda for late modernity. In this book Giddens concerns himself with themes he has often been accused of unduly neglecting, including especially the psychology of self and self-identity. The volumes are a decisive step in the development of his thinking, and will be essential reading for students and professionals in the areas of social and political theory, sociology, human geography and social psychology.

NowHere

NowHere
Author: Roger Friedland
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 460
Release: 1994
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520080188

This sociological study explores the temporal and spatial facets of modern social life. Grounded in the premise that all major world events are affected fundamentally by modern technology, the contributors attempt to make sense of the "here" and the "now" that define the modern age.

Melodrama and Modernity

Melodrama and Modernity
Author: Ben Singer
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2001-04-05
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780231505079

In this groundbreaking investigation into the nature and meanings of melodrama in American culture between 1880 and 1920, Ben Singer offers a challenging new reevaluation of early American cinema and the era that spawned it. Singer looks back to the sensational or "blood and thunder" melodramas (e.g., The Perils of Pauline, The Hazards of Helen, etc.) and uncovers a fundamentally modern cultural expression, one reflecting spectacular transformations in the sensory environment of the metropolis, in the experience of capitalism, in the popular imagination of gender, and in the exploitation of the thrill in popular amusement. Written with verve and panache, and illustrated with 100 striking photos and drawings, Singer's study provides an invaluable historical and conceptual map both of melodrama as a genre on stage and screen and of modernity as a pivotal idea in social theory.

Reforming Modernity

Reforming Modernity
Author: Wael B. Hallaq
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2019-11-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0231550553

Reforming Modernity is a sweeping intellectual history and philosophical reflection built around the work of the Morocco-based philosopher Abdurrahman Taha, one of the most significant philosophers in the Islamic world since the colonial era. Wael B. Hallaq contends that Taha is at the forefront of forging a new, non-Western-centric philosophical tradition. He explores how Taha’s philosophical project sheds light on recent intellectual currents in the Islamic world and puts forth a formidable critique of Western and Islamic modernities. Hallaq argues that Taha’s project departs from—but leaves behind—the epistemological grounds in which most modern Muslim intellectuals have anchored their programs. Taha systematically rejects the modes of thought that have dominated the Muslim intellectual scene since the beginning of the twentieth century—nationalism, Marxism, secularism, political Islamism, and liberalism. Instead, he provides alternative ways of thinking, forcefully and virtuosically developing an ethical system with a view toward reforming existing modernities. Hallaq analyzes the ethical thread that runs throughout Taha’s oeuvre, illuminating how Taha weaves it into a discursive engagement with the central questions that plague modernity in both the West and the Muslim world. The first introduction to Taha’s ethical philosophy for Western audiences, Reforming Modernity presents his complex thought in an accessible way while engaging with it critically. Hallaq’s conversation with Taha’s work both proffers a cogent critique of modernity and points toward answers for its endemic and seemingly insoluble problems.

Key Ideas in Sociology

Key Ideas in Sociology
Author: Peter Kivisto
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2010-05-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1483343332

Demonstrates the evolution of ideas developed by theorists over time and links classical sociological theory to today’s world Key Ideas in Sociology, Third Edition, is the only undergraduate text to link today’s issues to the ideas and individuals of the era of classical sociological thought. Compact and affordable, this book provides an overview of how sociological theories have helped sociologists understand modern societies and human relations. It also describes the continual evolution of these theories in response to social change. Providing students with the opportunity to read from primary texts, this valuable supplement presents theories as interpretive tools, useful for understanding a multifaceted, ever-shifting social world. Emphasis is given to the working world, to the roles and responsibilities of citizenship, and to social relationships. A concluding chapter addresses globalization and its challenges. Contributor to the SAGE Teaching Innovations and Professional Development Award

Cold Modernism

Cold Modernism
Author: Jessica Burstein
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2012
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0271053763

"Explores a significant but overlooked aspect of early twentieth-century modernism, one that focuses on surface appearance rather than interiority or psychological depth. Looks at the writers Wyndham Lewis and Mina Loy, the artists Balthus and Hans Bellmer, and the fashion designer Coco Chanel"--Provided by publisher.