Browse

Affect and Attention After Deleuze and Whitehead: Ecological Attunement

Russell J. Duvernoy

The book develops a process metaphysical conception of subjectivity from the work of Gilles Deleuze and Alfred North Whitehead. This alters existential orientations towards affect and attention in ... More

The book develops a process metaphysical conception of subjectivity from the work of Gilles Deleuze and Alfred North Whitehead. This alters existential orientations towards affect and attention in ways described as ecological attunement. The study is guided by two methodological commitments: (i) demonstrating the importance and relevance of responsible speculative thinking and (ii) translating metaphysical ideas into their existential implications. Both commitments are motivated by a contemporary context of ecological crisis and paradigm transformation. In the course of its argument, the book relates the work of Deleuze and Whitehead to other speculative trends in recent philosophy, particularly posthumanisms and speculative realisms. Deleuze and Whitehead are read in a shared lineage of radical empiricism that emphasizes processes and events as metaphysically primary. A key theme is understanding subjectivity through dynamic processes of individuation at variable scales where feeling/affect and attention acquire metaphysical rather than psychological scope and status. Whitehead’s analysis of “feeling” as metaphysical operation is explored in relation to Deleuze and Guattari's Spinozist-inspired deployment of affect. Attending participates as a crucial bridge between the metaphysical and the existential in processes of consolidation of present real actual occasions. The book develops existential implications of these claims in the context of an expanded philosophical conception of ecology. These implications challenge dominant modes of subjectification under what Guattari calls “Integrated World Capitalism” (IWC). The book concludes with discussion of how speculative philosophy may contribute to alternative futures.Less

American Snobs: Transatlantic Novelists, Liberal Culture and the Genteel Tradition

Emily Coit

Arguing that Henry Adams, Henry James and Edith Wharton articulated their political thought in response to the liberalism that reigned in Boston and, more specifically, at Harvard University, ... More

Arguing that Henry Adams, Henry James and Edith Wharton articulated their political thought in response to the liberalism that reigned in Boston and, more specifically, at Harvard University, American Snobs shows how each of these authors interrogated that liberalism's arguments for education, democracy and the political duties of the cultivated elite. Coit shows that the works of these authors contributed to a realist critique of a liberal New England idealism that fed into the narrative about 'the genteel tradition', which shaped the study of US literature during the twentieth century.Less

Asian Cinema: A Regional View

Olivia Khoo

Asia’s film industries have undergone significant transformation in the last 30 years. From bilateral co-production agreements to pan-Asian financing, Asian cinema has assumed a regional identity ... More

Asia’s film industries have undergone significant transformation in the last 30 years. From bilateral co-production agreements to pan-Asian financing, Asian cinema has assumed a regional identity beyond its constituent national cinemas. This book examines the dynamic industrial and cultural developments that have enabled greater co-operation and integration between Asia’s film industries. It brings a much-needed focus on how collaborative Asian film industries are affecting models of financing, distribution, exhibition and reception in the region and beyond.Less

Bayana: The Sources of Mughal Architecture

Mehrdad Shokoohy and Natalie H. Shokoohy

Bayana in Rajasthan and its monuments challenge the perceived but established view of the development of Indo-Muslim architecture and urban form. At the end of the 12th century the Ghurid conquerors ... More

Bayana in Rajasthan and its monuments challenge the perceived but established view of the development of Indo-Muslim architecture and urban form. At the end of the 12th century the Ghurid conquerors took the mighty Hindu fort, building the first Muslim city below on virgin ground. It was the centre of an autonomous region during the 15th and 16th centuries and was even considered by Sikandar Lodī for the capital of his sultanate before he decided on Agra, then a mere village of Bayana. A peculiarity of historic sites in India is that whole towns with outstanding remains can, through political change or climatic events, be either built over by modern developments or fall into obscurity. The latter is the case with Bayana, abandoned following an earthquake in 1505. Going beyond a simple study of the historic, architectural and archaeological remains ‒ surveyed and illustrated in detail ‒ the book takes on the wider issues of how far the artistic traditions of Bayana, which developed independently from those of Delhi, later influenced North Indian architecture and were the forerunners of the Mughal architectural style, which draw many of its features from innovations developed first in Bayana.Less

Big Data and Democracy

Kevin Macnish and Jai Galliott (eds)

This edited collection tackles subjects that have arisen as a result of new capabilities to collect, analyse and use vast quantities of data using complex algorithms. Questions tackled include what ... More

This edited collection tackles subjects that have arisen as a result of new capabilities to collect, analyse and use vast quantities of data using complex algorithms. Questions tackled include what is wrong with targeted advertising in political campaigns, whether echo chambers really are a matter of genuine concern, what is the impact of data collection through social media and other platforms on questions of trust in society and is there a problem of opacity as decision-making becomes increasingly automated? The contributors consider potential solutions to these challenges and discuss whether an ethical compass is available or even feasible in an ever more digitized and monitored world. The editors bring together original research on the philosophy of big data and democracy from leading international authors, with recent examples and case references – including the 2016 Brexit Referendum, the Leveson Inquiry and the Edward Snowden leaks – and combine them in one authoritative volume at time of great political turmoil.Less

Blasphemy and Apostasy in Islam: Debates on Shi'a Jurisprudence

Mohsen Kadivar

Is it lawful to shed the blood of a man or a woman who insults the Prophet Muhammad? Does the Qur’an stipulate a worldly punishment for apostates? Beginning with a genealogy of religious freedom in ... More

Is it lawful to shed the blood of a man or a woman who insults the Prophet Muhammad? Does the Qur’an stipulate a worldly punishment for apostates? Beginning with a genealogy of religious freedom in contemporary Islam, this book tells the gripping story of Rafiq Taqi, an Azerbaijani journalist and writer, who was condemned to death by an Iranian cleric for a blasphemous news article in 2006. Delving into the most sacred sources for all Muslims – the Qur’an and Hadith – Mohsen Kadivar explores the subject of blasphemy and apostasy from the perspective of Shi’a jurisprudence to articulate a polarisation between secularism and extremist religious orthodoxy. In a series of online exchanges, he debates the case with Muhammad Jawad Fazel, the son of Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani who issued the fatwa pronouncing death penalty on Taqi. While disapproving of the journalist’s writings, Kadivar takes a defensive stance against vigilante murders and asks whether death for apostasy reflects the true spirit of Islam. This book presents a back-and-forth debate between modern two Shi’a jurists (one conservative, one reformist) that locates the exact points of controversy surrounding apostasy and blasphemy. It engages with the broader subjects of religious freedom and human rights, addressing both secular and religious interests. The author’s extensive new introduction and annotations throughout the text brings the work up-to-date and place it in its academic and public contexts. Finally, the book takes a front-row seat to the debate on blasphemy and apostasy in Islam.Less

The CIA and the Pursuit of Security: History, Documents and Contexts

Huw Dylan, David Gioe, and Michael S. Goodman

Taking declassified and publicly available sources this book provides an insight into the evolution of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1947 to the Trump Presidency. Focusing on a mix of case ... More

Taking declassified and publicly available sources this book provides an insight into the evolution of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1947 to the Trump Presidency. Focusing on a mix of case studies historic case studies such as The Berlin Tunnel, and The Cuban Missile Crisis. As well as discussing the internal changes and evolution of the organisation from planning covert actions, to adapting to, using and developing technology to aid in intelligence collection and analysis. The book also talks to key individuals that have shaped the organisation at different points in its history as well as how different Presidents have used the Agency to deliver political decisions. The book is balanced in its presentation of successes and failures, the latter often times more well known: Iraq being perhaps the best known example. The use of declassified documentation elevates this from being another history of the Central Intelligence Agency, into an insightful window into a famous yet secret organisation with a global brand.Less

Cinematic Intermediality: Theory and Practice

Kim Knowles and Marion Schmid (eds)

As a fundamentally hybrid medium, cinema has always been defined by its interactions with other art forms such as painting, sculpture, photography, performance and dance. Taking the in-between nature ... More

As a fundamentally hybrid medium, cinema has always been defined by its interactions with other art forms such as painting, sculpture, photography, performance and dance. Taking the in-between nature of the cinematic medium as its starting point, this collection of essays maps out new directions for understanding the richly diverse ways in which artists and filmmakers draw on and reconfigure the other arts in their creative practice. From pre-cinema to the digital era, from avant-garde to world cinema, and from the projection room to the gallery space, the contributors critically explore what happens when ideas, forms and feelings migrate from one art form to another. Giving voice to both theorists and moving image practitioners, Cinematic Intermediality: Theory and Practice stimulates fresh thinking about how intermediality, as both a creative method and an interpretative paradigm, can be explored alongside probing questions of what cinema is, has been and can be.Less

Cinematic Realism: Lukács, Kracauer and Theories of the Filmic Real

Ian Aitken

This book explores the subject of cinematic realism through a long Introduction which covers general notions related to cinematic realism, and then through close analysis of book chapters written by ... More

This book explores the subject of cinematic realism through a long Introduction which covers general notions related to cinematic realism, and then through close analysis of book chapters written by Siegfried Kracauer and Georg Lukács. The theories of Edmund Husserl and Henri Bergson are also covered. The long Introduction attempts to set out a model of cinematic realism based on a philosophical realist and ‘externalist’ position. This is followed by an introductory chapter on Bergson, which serves as a foundation for the following four chapters, which cover the work of Lukács. The same structure is then repeated for Kracauer: an introductory chapter on Husserl is followed by four chapters on Kracauer.Less

Contemporary Balkan Cinema: Transnational Exchanges and Global Circuits

Lydia Papadimitriou and Ana Grgić (eds)

The first inclusive collection to examine post-2008 developments in Balkan cinema, this book brings together a number of international scholars working within and beyond the region to explore its ... More

The first inclusive collection to examine post-2008 developments in Balkan cinema, this book brings together a number of international scholars working within and beyond the region to explore its industrial contexts and textual dimensions. Exploring both mainstream and arthouse cinemas, the authors identify patterns, trends and common characteristics in the subject matter and aesthetics of films produced and distributed since the global economic crisis. With a focus on transnational links, global networks and cross-cultural exchanges, the book addresses the role of national and supranational institutions as well as film festival networks in supporting film production, distribution and reception. Through critical and comprehensive profiles of the cinematic output in each Balkan country, and with an equal focus on smaller and underrepresented cinemas from Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Albania, the collection argues for the continuing relevance of the concept of ‘Balkan cinema’. This study conceptualizes Contemporary Balkan Cinema as a hybrid, trans-national encounter that offers multifarious responses to political and social challenges in the region: gravitation and/or disillusionment toward the European Union; migration; political and social instability; and economic recession.Less

Contemporary Hollywood Animation: Style, Storytelling, Culture and Ideology Since the 1990s

Noel Brown

Until the 1990s, animation occupied a relatively marginal presence in Hollywood. Today, it is at the very heart of both the film industry and contemporary popular culture. Charting the major changes ... More

Until the 1990s, animation occupied a relatively marginal presence in Hollywood. Today, it is at the very heart of both the film industry and contemporary popular culture. Charting the major changes and continuities in Hollywood animation over the past thirty years, this groundbreaking book offers an authoritative history of Hollywood animation since the 1990s. Analysing dozens of key films, including The Lion King, Toy Story, Shrek, Despicable Me, Frozen and Moana, it examines the emergence of new genres and stylistic approaches, as well as the ongoing blurring of boundaries between animation and live-action. Identifying narrative and thematic patterns, and developments in industry and style, the book explores how animation in the United States both responds to and recapitulates the values, beliefs, hopes and fears of the nation.Less

The Cultural Memory of Georgian Glasgow

Craig Lamont

This book provides a long overdue reading of Scotland’s largest city as it was during the long eighteenth century. These formative years of Enlightenment, caught between the tumultuous ages of the ... More

This book provides a long overdue reading of Scotland’s largest city as it was during the long eighteenth century. These formative years of Enlightenment, caught between the tumultuous ages of the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution, cast Glasgow in a new and vibrant light. Far from being a dusty metropolis lying in wait for the famous age of shipbuilding, Glasgow was already an imperial hub: as implicated in mass migration and slavery as it was in civic growth and social progression. Craig Lamont incorporates case studies such as the Scottish Enlightenment, the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Eighteenth Century Print Culture to investigate how the city was shaped by the emergence of new trades and new ventures in philosophy, fine art, science, and religion. The book merges historical, literary and memory studies to provide an original blueprint for new research into other cities or civic spaces.Less

The Edinburgh Companion to D. H. Lawrence and the Arts

Catherine Brown and Susan Reid (eds)

This book includes twenty-eight chapters by specialists from across the arts, reassessing Lawrence’s relationship to aesthetic categories and specific art forms in their historical and critical ... More

This book includes twenty-eight chapters by specialists from across the arts, reassessing Lawrence’s relationship to aesthetic categories and specific art forms in their historical and critical contexts. A new picture of Lawrence as a multi-disciplinary artist emerges, expanding from traditional areas of enquiry in prose and poetry into the fields of drama, painting, music, dance, sculpture, architecture, historiography, life writing and queer and Biblical aesthetics. The Companion explores topics such as Lawrence’s politics in his art, his representations of technology, his practice of revising and rewriting, his manifold modes of performance, and the relationship between his criticism and creation of prose, poetry and painting. Investigation of Lawrence’s engagements with the work and themes of his fellow modernists represents him as more ‘modernist’ and less anti-aesthetic than has hitherto been the case; and his attitudes towards the working-classes, and anticipation of the ideas of the Frankfurt School, modern ecocriticism and queer theory, are presented as revealing him to be more progressive than has previously been recognised. This interdisciplinary Companion also makes a strong case for Lawrence’s continuing aesthetic power, as represented by case studies of his afterlives in biofiction, cinema, musical settings and portraiture.Less

The Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf and Contemporary Global Literature

Jeanne Dubino, Paulina Pajak, Catherine W. Hollis, Celiese Lypka, and Vara Neverow (eds)

This book considers the global responses Woolf’s work has inspired and her worldwide impact. The 23 chapters address the ways Woolf is received by writers, publishers, academics, reading audiences, ... More

This book considers the global responses Woolf’s work has inspired and her worldwide impact. The 23 chapters address the ways Woolf is received by writers, publishers, academics, reading audiences, and students in countries around the world; how she is translated into multiple languages; and how her life is transformed into global contemporary biofiction. The 24 authors hail from regions around the world: West and East Europe, the Middle East/North Africa, North and South America, East Asia and the Pacific Islands. They write about Woolf’s reception in Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Russia, Egypt, Kenya, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, the United States, China, Japan and Australia. The Edinburgh Companion is dialogic and comparative, incorporating both transnational and local tendencies insofar as they epitomise Woolf’s global reception and legacy. It contests the ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ binary, offering new models for Woolf global studies and promoting cross-cultural understandings.Less

The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Volume 3: Competition and Disruption, 1900-2017

Martin Conboy and Adrian Bingham (eds)

This volume presents a research-led, interdisciplinary examination of existing scholarship as well as new research on twentieth-century newspaper and periodical history across Britain and Ireland ... More

This volume presents a research-led, interdisciplinary examination of existing scholarship as well as new research on twentieth-century newspaper and periodical history across Britain and Ireland during a key period of change and development into the twenty-first century. It covers an important period of expansion (1900-2017) in periodical and press history across the four nations of Britain (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales) and Ireland, concentrating on how the development of twentieth-century print communication can be assessed via cross-border comparisons and contrasts. Its thirty-three chapters are interspersed with case studies specific to the themes covered, allowing synchronic and diachronic coverage via macro as well as micro studies. It is designed to provide readers with a clear survey of the current state of research in the field, drawing on contemporary methodologies, demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature of the field and offering an indication of areas ripe for further work. The impact on the field of digital media and archives will fully inform discussions of the print archive where relevant. While the volume meets a need amongst scholars of British and Irish culture, it will also be of tremendous value to those working in other national traditions, offering insight into press trade connections into European and trans-oceanic counterparts, highlighting matters related to national and trans-national identities, migration, skills and knowledge exchange and the place of such texts in a globalised marketplace.Less

Elizabeth Bowen's Psychoanalytic Fiction

Victoria Coulson

Despite the exceptional literary quality, remarkable conceptual sophistication and compelling socio-historical interest of Elizabeth Bowen’s writing, her fiction has received relatively little ... More

Despite the exceptional literary quality, remarkable conceptual sophistication and compelling socio-historical interest of Elizabeth Bowen’s writing, her fiction has received relatively little critical attention in comparison to the work of such acknowledged giants of the modern canon as, for example, Woolf and Joyce. The past decade has seen a lively burgeoning of interest in Bowen’s work, recent scholarship focusing with a new intensity on the question of the relationship between Bowen’s writing and the socio-political matrix from which it emerges. Situating itself within this new wave of scholarship and engaging closely with its socio-historical and literary-critical concerns, this book sets out to offer a provocative and substantial new account of Bowen’s fiction that highlights in particular the force and originality of Bowen’s virtually psychoanalytic thinking about development, sexuality and gender.Less

Greek Cinema and Migration, 1991-2016

Philip E. Phillis

Greek Cinema and Migration examines the ways in which the cinema of Greece has responded to the post-1990s phenomenon of becoming a host country for immigrants. The book focuses mainly on migration ... More

Greek Cinema and Migration examines the ways in which the cinema of Greece has responded to the post-1990s phenomenon of becoming a host country for immigrants. The book focuses mainly on migration from Albania that dominated social discourse and cinematic representation in the 1990s and 2000s, but also sheds light on cinematic responses to the mid-2010s ‘refugee crisis’. Placing contemporary Greek cinema within the context of European film production and transnational cinema, the book explores the fascination of Greek filmmakers with migration, mobility, borders and identity between 1991 and 2016. With case studies such as The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991), The Way to the West (2003) and many more, Greek Cinema and Migration provides an in-depth understanding of contemporary Greek cinema and its direct correlation to the country’s struggles to implement European modernity. It tackles important questions on identity and representation, highlighting the role of migrants as constitutive ‘others’ who help to redefine national identity in times of encroaching globalization. The book raises in addition important questions on representations of migrants and refugees in film and mainstream media, focusing primarily on the role of migrant-related violence and its links to both humanitarianism and the agenda of the Far Right which gained a strong footing in crisis-era Greece. The author thus argues that migrants and refugees appear as either perpetrators or victims of violence in an intolerant host society, strengthening thus the role of stereotypes – both negative and positive.Less

Hans Kelsen's Political Realism

Robert Schuett

What does it mean to be a foreign-policy realist? Why is it important to get Hans Kelsen right? How can open society ideals be reconciled with the tragedies of world politics? It is widely ... More

What does it mean to be a foreign-policy realist? Why is it important to get Hans Kelsen right? How can open society ideals be reconciled with the tragedies of world politics? It is widely acknowledged that the rules-based international order is under assault by visions of illiberal democracy at home and powerful autocracies abroad. The Schmittians old and new are making a comeback, and neorealists in particular continue to pit realism against liberalism: where there is only power or nothing, all else is scorned as naïve, including Kelsen. The book challenges the neorealist myth of power politics and conventional views of the Austrian-American jurist in international relations theory. Revisiting Kelsen’s life and thought through the prism of classical realism, the supposed Kantian idealist is presented as a calm yet bold, progressive political realist who has continued analytical and normative relevance in the study of politics and world order. The case is made that a synthesis of political realism and progressive policies is possible. No matter what the Schmittians say or do, what is in a liberal democracy’s so-called national interest is not a function of causality, necessity, or any other natural laws of impersonal forces or anarchical structures. Rather, what is willed, or not willed, on any given day in politics and international relations is the product of political imputation, moral choice, and individual and collective human agency.Less

The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1925-1927: General Metaphysical Problems of Science

Brian G. Henning

Joseph Petek and George Lucas (eds)

This second volume of the Critical Edition of Whitehead covers Whitehead’s second and third years of lectures at Harvard University and Radcliffe College. It reveals the development of his philosophy ... More

This second volume of the Critical Edition of Whitehead covers Whitehead’s second and third years of lectures at Harvard University and Radcliffe College. It reveals the development of his philosophy during the crucial period between the publication of Science and the Modern World and his delivery of the Gifford lectures that would become Process and Reality as he tested his theories in a classroom setting. These lectures challenge longstanding speculations about when exactly Whitehead developed some of his most famous metaphysical concepts, and how those concepts are to be properly interpreted against the wider backdrop of his life and thought. Also included is a transcript of the only known lecture Whitehead delivered on the topic of ethics, two mid-year exams given to his students, and nearly 2,000 footnotes that provide additional context for the lectures and alternative student accounts of key passages.Less

Hölderlin's Philosophy of Nature

Rochelle Tobias (ed.)

In an age of climate change, the work of the decidedly philosophical poet Friedrich Hölderlin has gained renewed urgency in its emphasis on the forces of nature that produce life and at the same time ... More

In an age of climate change, the work of the decidedly philosophical poet Friedrich Hölderlin has gained renewed urgency in its emphasis on the forces of nature that produce life and at the same time threaten to devour it. Although Hölderlin gives these forces various names throughout his poetry (e.g., Zeus and the Titans, love and strife, Father Aether and the depths), on one point he remains clear. Human history is bound up with natural history, and it falls to the poet to strike a balance between opposing tendencies. The thirteen essays by distinguished scholars in this volume analyse Hölderlin’s concept of nature and its relation to his poetry, theory of tragedy, essays on poetic form and notion of divinity.Less