Between Tradition And Modernity

Aby Warburg (1866-1929), founder of the Warburg Institute, was one of the most influential cultural historians of the twentieth century. Focusing on the period 1896-1918, this is the first in-depth, book-length study of his response to German political, social and cultural modernism. It analyses Warburg's response to the effects of these phenomena through a study of his involvement with the creation of some of the most important public artworks in Germany. Using a wide array of archival sources, including many of his unpublished working papers and much of his correspondence, the author demonstrates that Warburg's thinking on contemporary art was the product of two important influences: his engagement with Hamburg's civic affairs and his affinity with influential reform movements seeking a greater role for the middle classes in the political, social and cultural leadership of the nation. Thus a lively picture of Hamburg's cultural life emerges as it responded to artistic modernism, animated by private initiative and public discourse, and charged with debate.

Although the ideas of “tradition” and “modernity” may seem to be directly opposed, David Ellenson, a leading contemporary scholar of modern Jewish thought, understood that these concepts can also enjoy a more fluid relationship. In honor of Ellenson, editors Michael A. Meyer and David N. Myers have gathered contributors for Between Jewish Tradition and Modernity: Rethinking an Old Opposition to examine the permutations and adaptations of these intertwined forms of Jewish expression. Contributions draw from a range of disciplines and scholarly interests and vary in subject from the theological to the liturgical, sociological, and literary. The geographic and historical focus of the volume is on the United States and the State of Israel, both of which have been major sites of inquiry in Ellenson’s work. In twenty-one essays, contributors demonstrate that modernity did not simply replace tradition in Judaism, but rather entered into a variety of relationships with it: adopting or adapting certain elements, repossessing rituals that had once been abandoned, or struggling with its continuing influence. In four parts—Law, Ritual, Thought, and Culture—contributors explore a variety of subjects, including the role of reform in Israeli Orthodoxy, traditions of twentieth-century bar/bat mitzvah, end-of-life ethics, tensions between Zionism and American Jewry, and the rise of a 1960s New York Jewish counterculture. An introductory essay also presents an appreciation of Ellenson's scholarly contribution. Bringing together leading Jewish historians, anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers and liturgists, Between Jewish Tradition and Modernity offers a collective view of a historically and culturally significant issue that will be of interest to Jewish scholars of many disciplines.

A study and critical analysis of the late nineteenth century journalist and reformer, Wang T’ao, and the process of reform in Late Ching China .

While in some cases modernity may place "traditional" forms of expression at a disadvantage, in others, the modern is embraced as a welcome source of new ideas that can be incorporated into "tradition" in order to change it, while remaining within its own parameters. This is actually likely to help a tradition survive. Maintaining a strong and distinct cultural identity with the help of modernity helps representatives of that identity cope with the modern world more generally. Assimilation to a dominant culture marked as modern, by contrast, is clearly associated with not only the loss of a distinct identity, but also its specific forms of cultural expression. This book explores the interface between modernity and tradition in selected societies in Taiwan, mainland China and Vietnam. The chapters question to what extent traditions are themselves exploiting modernity in creative ways, in the interests of their own further developments.

Tradition and Modernity focuses on how Christians and Muslims connect their traditions to modernity, looking especially at understandings of history, changing patterns of authority, and approaches to freedom. The volume includes a selection of relevant texts from 19th- and 20th-century thinkers, from John Henry Newman to Tariq Ramadan, accompanied by illuminating commentaries.

An AltaMira Press Book The process of modernization poses a profound challenge to societies. Nowhere is this more true than in India where cultural memories have been severely tested by colonial domination but have been loyally preserved nonetheless. This anthology documents the intellectual struggle of Indian writers and philosophers in the twentieth century to articulate the meaning of "India" and thereby establish an identity which bridges indigenous tradition and Western-style modernity. The book focuses on the existential dimension of India's encounter with the West-its role as a catalyst in the process of self-scrutiny and in the search for self-rule and cultural identity. As a whole, the anthology constitutes not so much an objective travellogue but rather a 'sentimental journey' reflecting the experiences of prominent Indians, thereby revealing that the process of modernization and development is really a struggle over the heart and soul of India and, by extension, over the sense and direction of humanity or humankind. It provides a timely perspective on self-understanding or self-interpretation in India's fiftieth year of independence.

Kniha "Crossing Between Tradition and Modernity" představuje soubor třinácti esejů k uctění památky Mileny Doleželové-Velingerové (1932–2012), členky pražské sinologické školy a významné odbornice na čínskou literaturu, která zastávala přední místo při zavádění literární teorie a její důsledné aplikace v sinologii. Milena Doleželová-Velingerová byla jedním z těch vzácných vědeckých pracovníků, kteří psali se stejnou erudicí a stejně kvalifikovaně jak o moderní, tak i o klasické literatuře. Eseje následují příkladu Mileny Doleželové-Velingerové v tom smyslu, že se zabývají širokým spektrem historických období, literárních žánrů a témat - od Tangových cestovatelských esejů až po kulturní identitu postkoloniálního Hong-Kongu. Eseje jsou strukturovány do dvou částí Language, Structure, and Genre a Identities and Self-Representations. Jsou motivovány soustředěným zájmem o problematiku jazyka, narativní struktury a komplexní povahy literárního významu, tématy, které byly středobodem práce Mileny Doleželové-Velingerové.