23 research outputs found
A bibliography on the Jews of Malta
A bibliographical list of sources on the Jews of Maltapeer-reviewe
Literary Writing and Personal Identity in Borges and Pessoa
In a famous passage in âThe Death of the Author,â Roland Barthes describes the writing process as embodying the disintegration of the authorâs personal identity: âWriting is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writingâ (142). This postmodern position is deeply rooted in classical Greek thought, in particular Platoâs harsh critique of poetic inspiration, conceived as âholy madness.â Is this equation valid, however? Does writing necessarily serve as the ultimate act of self-negation? This essay seeks to elucidate Jorge Luis Borgesâ and Fernando Pessoaâs alternative views of authorial subjectivity. Borges and Pessoa â arguably two of the greatest writers of the twentieth century â conceive the interplay between writing and self-identity in rather complex fashion. Pessoaâs term âheteronymâ relates to the way in which an authorâs subjectivity abruptly gives way to an idiosyncratic identity who composes the poem. This recalls the Kabbalistic idea of Godâs contraction (tzimzum), the creator preserving his or her passive self-identity while giving birth to other beings from his or her inner void. Discussing Shakespeare and Whitman, Borges proposes that the act of writing is a form of self-creation in which the writer begets a unique narrative identity out of himself or herself that, transfigured, is simultaneously both the same and the other
Geometry of sedimentary deposits and evolution of the landforms in the Chobe Enclave, Northern Botswana
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Imaginative Geography: Dialectical Orientalism in Borges
The following essay investigates Borgesâ cultural-ideological stance as an Argentinean writer opposed to national literature and ideological rhetoric. This position will be elucidated via a comparison with Edward Saidâs Orientialism which, following Foucault, argues that literature is subservient to the ideological paradigms of the period. The discussion demonstrates how Borges presents a dialectical orientalism in his work: a philosophical-universal position deviating from the delimited framework of national ideology, hereby establishing an uni-ideological philosophical and transcultural view of the interrelationship between âEastâ and âWest.â In line with Said, the essay examines the literary representation of Islam in Western literature, focusing on the image of Mahomet in Dante's Divine Comedy
Nonsense and Irony: Wittgenstein's Strategy of Self-Refutation and Kierkegaard's Concept of Indirect Communication
En el prefacio al Tractatus, Wittgenstein establece que la
cuestiĂłn del sinsentido tiene que ver con trazar los lĂmites
del lenguaje. Las expresiones sinsentido van mĂĄs allĂĄ de los
lĂmites del lenguaje significativo y residen âdel otro ladoâ de
lo que puede ser dicho. AĂșn asĂ, al final del libro declara que
sus propias proposiciones son, hablando de manera estricta,
sinsentidos. El presente trabajo pretende analizar la estrategia
de auto-refutaciĂłn del primer Wittgenstein como un modo de
trascender los lĂmites del lenguaje, comparando su concepto de
âsinsentidoâ (Unsinn) con la visiĂłn de Kierkegaard acerca de la
comunicaciĂłn indirecta y de la ironĂa socrĂĄtica
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Language Socialization and Linguistic Ideologies Among Israeli Emissaries in the United States
Research in both the anthropology and sociology of education has increasingly come to consider the institutional effects of migration, globalization, and transnationalism on learning environments. Yet, most studies examining transmigration and education have only looked at migrant children in schools rather than at the transitions they undergo as transnationals across settings. We know little of the linguistic and socializing practices that occur during migrantsâ transitions from place to place and how they come to define the migratory and educational experience for transnational children. This multi-sited, global ethnography examines language socialization practices and linguistic ideologies among families of Israeli emissaries (shlichim) employed by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). The study documented the transitions undergone by families with school-age children in the months of their preparation for their move from Israel to the United States and during the first year and-a-half in the U.S.. Data collection for this project took place in both Israel and New York at the homes of the families, the childrenâs schools, peer group activities, extracurricular programs, play, and summer camp.The focus of this dissertation project is on routine home and school practices which orient children to attitudes towards their identities as Israelis, as Zionists, as transnationals, and as temporary residents of the United States. The study approaches this question through the lens of the language socialization paradigm, a subfield of linguistic anthropology which understands socialization to occur both through the use of language and to the use of language. I argue that through attention to language use and form children are taught to attend to symbolic boundaries between Israeli, Jewish Diasporan, and U.S. American identities. The simultaneous reinforcement and transcendence of these symbolic boundaries is a defining characteristic of living transnationally.I find that transnational identities: (1) Are constructed through an explicit recognition of the boundaries between the linguistic and cultural practices of the homeland and the host country; (2) are negotiated through attention to the authenticity of members of the homeland, the host country, and the transnational community; that is, through attention to the extent to which individuals stay within the symbolic boundaries that separate the homeland and the host-land; and (3) Display an ambivalence toward affiliation with the host country by accentuating and emphasizing the linguistic and cultural practices of the homeland. Based on these findings, I call for a language socialization approach to studying transnationalism which recognizes the role of the local and the global, the contemporary and the historical, and the orthodox and heterodox in everyday transnational practices.By focusing on the shlichimâs transition from Israel to the United States, the dissertation obtains a view of migration often unavailable to researchers: the preparation for departure and initial arrival to the country of destination. This period of transition is formative in the emissariesâ experiences and as they define themselves visâĂ âvis their country of origin and their host country. In this sense, this dissertation contributes to an understanding of the role of language in transnational practices, thus supplementing the growing field of research around questions of transnationalism, diaspora, and identity
Time and Identity: Socializing Schedules and the Implications for Community
This article analyzes data collected as part of an ethnography of three families of Israeli emissaries (shlichim) in order to explore the relationship between the individual, the schedules to which s/he adheres, and her/his affiliation with a particular collective. The paper examines the relationship between time, community, and self through a discourse analytic lens that draws on approaches to the study of cultural identity which look to tension as definitive of groups and their members. It is suggested that an examination of the tensions between the individual and the collective provides a fruitful means by which to investigate the meaning of time for society and self
Imaginative Geography: Dialectical Orientalism in Borges
The following essay investigates Borgesâ cultural-ideological stance as an Argentinean writer opposed to national literature and ideological rhetoric. This position will be elucidated via a comparison with Edward Saidâs Orientialism which, following Foucault, argues that literature is subservient to the ideological paradigms of the period. The discussion demonstrates how Borges presents a dialectical orientalism in his work: a philosophical-universal position deviating from the delimited framework of national ideology, hereby establishing an uni-ideological philosophical and transcultural view of the interrelationship between âEastâ and âWest.â In line with Said, the essay examines the literary representation of Islam in Western literature, focusing on the image of Mahomet in Dante's Divine Comedy
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Language Socialization and Linguistic Ideologies Among Israeli Emissaries in the United States
Research in both the anthropology and sociology of education has increasingly come to consider the institutional effects of migration, globalization, and transnationalism on learning environments. Yet, most studies examining transmigration and education have only looked at migrant children in schools rather than at the transitions they undergo as transnationals across settings. We know little of the linguistic and socializing practices that occur during migrantsâ transitions from place to place and how they come to define the migratory and educational experience for transnational children. This multi-sited, global ethnography examines language socialization practices and linguistic ideologies among families of Israeli emissaries (shlichim) employed by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). The study documented the transitions undergone by families with school-age children in the months of their preparation for their move from Israel to the United States and during the first year and-a-half in the U.S.. Data collection for this project took place in both Israel and New York at the homes of the families, the childrenâs schools, peer group activities, extracurricular programs, play, and summer camp.The focus of this dissertation project is on routine home and school practices which orient children to attitudes towards their identities as Israelis, as Zionists, as transnationals, and as temporary residents of the United States. The study approaches this question through the lens of the language socialization paradigm, a subfield of linguistic anthropology which understands socialization to occur both through the use of language and to the use of language. I argue that through attention to language use and form children are taught to attend to symbolic boundaries between Israeli, Jewish Diasporan, and U.S. American identities. The simultaneous reinforcement and transcendence of these symbolic boundaries is a defining characteristic of living transnationally.I find that transnational identities: (1) Are constructed through an explicit recognition of the boundaries between the linguistic and cultural practices of the homeland and the host country; (2) are negotiated through attention to the authenticity of members of the homeland, the host country, and the transnational community; that is, through attention to the extent to which individuals stay within the symbolic boundaries that separate the homeland and the host-land; and (3) Display an ambivalence toward affiliation with the host country by accentuating and emphasizing the linguistic and cultural practices of the homeland. Based on these findings, I call for a language socialization approach to studying transnationalism which recognizes the role of the local and the global, the contemporary and the historical, and the orthodox and heterodox in everyday transnational practices.By focusing on the shlichimâs transition from Israel to the United States, the dissertation obtains a view of migration often unavailable to researchers: the preparation for departure and initial arrival to the country of destination. This period of transition is formative in the emissariesâ experiences and as they define themselves visâĂ âvis their country of origin and their host country. In this sense, this dissertation contributes to an understanding of the role of language in transnational practices, thus supplementing the growing field of research around questions of transnationalism, diaspora, and identity