Academic literature on the topic 'Postmodernisme – Origines'

Le cofondateur de la revue raconte les origines et l’essor subséquent de Circuit durant la décennie (les années 1990) où il l’a pilotée. Se penchant sur le contexte intellectuel qui a vu la naissance de la revue, l’auteur souligne l’importance de Circuit en tant que forum de débats esthétiques importants. Sont discutés notamment les numéros consacrés au postmodernisme, à la musique actuelle et à l’électroacoustique.

The study focuses on the manifestation of the main literary trends – postmodernism and post-postmodernism – in the novels of the contemporary American writer J. Franzen, which has determined the purpose of the paper – to identify, characterize and analyze the leading features of the new literary tendencies that have obtained original interpretation in the writer’s literary creative activity. The article gives a brief overview of philosophical, cultural and literary criticism studies of both home and foreign scholars, which describe the vectors of development of the literary process at the present stage, pose various hypotheses with reference to the definition of these vectors, characterize them and suggest new terms for their nomination. The postmodernist and post-postmodernist tendencies are explored on the concrete material of the novels The Corrections and Purity by J. Franzen, in which they receive original interpretation and serve the purpose of impersonating the author’s ideas, unfolding the main themes, creating the characters and expressing the narration modality. The key method of research used in this paper is the method of interpretive analysis, which involves identifying content and semantic dominants and interpreting a work of fiction within a certain literary context, determining the inclusion of this work in the system of current literary movements and trends. The interpretive analysis of the works under investigation revealed various tendencies typical for the literary process of the post-postmodern era on the whole, the most important of which are the following: no clear distinction between postmodernism and post-postmodernism; realization and sophisticated interaction of elements of such new trends as metamodernism, cosmodernism, digimodernism, and automodernism. The results of the study can be used in literary analysis of modern fiction, and specifically in research works of different levels and in teaching at philological faculties of universities. The study argues that the novels by J. Franzen demonstrate the specific features of postmodernism and post-postmodernism, which reject the postmodernist principles and at the same time follow them, return to the realistic traditions and actualize new literary tendencies.

This article examines the modern Indonesian women’s prose and its interaction with the elements of postmodernist paradigm. The object of this research is the novelistic writing of the prominent Indonesian author Dewi Lestari on the example of the novel "“Supernova: The Knight, The Princess, and The Falling Star” (Supernova: Ksatria, Puteri, dan Bintang Jatuh, 2001), which is part of the series “Supernova” (2001-2016). Fiction, as the “median” field in literature, embraces various codes of language art. Relying on the tested patterns of popular literature, it can also appeal to postmodernism. In the latter case, the works are characterized by the presence of deconstructive and game (including simulation) principles. The example of application of the codes of fiction and postmodernism is the novel of under review. An important role in the research is played by the literary-theoretical, typological, and descriptive methods. The work of Dewi Lestari has not yet been considered from the perspective of postmodernist game technique and involvement of the concept of simulacrum. An attempt to do this on the example of her most famous works defines the novelty of this research, as well as the noticeable place of postmodernism in Eastern literatures makes relevant it analysis based on the original Indonesian literature. Reference to the poetics of postmodernism through borrowing the simulation game technique allowed Lestari to create a commercially successful product. The perception of the text by each reader in accordance with their worldview, and engagement in the game proposed by Lestari, correspond to the ideas of the postmodernist interpretation of the literary text, as well as to the laws of the market. This is why modern Indonesian writers refer to the postmodernist paradigm.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it seeks to trace the origins of the various strands of postmodernism within German philosophic idealism; traditions of thought which placed emphasis – like postmodernism – on a subjective understanding of evidence and a supposed capacity of human consciousness to continually move beyond the bounds imposed by social convention and being; second, this paper states that postmodernism, rooted as it is in philosophic idealism, is methodologically and conceptually constrained. Its emphasis on consciousness and will marginalize its capacity to make meaningful contributions in areas such as economics, and the wider trends in human history. Design/methodology/approach This paper is theoretical. It seeks to locate conflicting methodologies – most particularly those relating to postmodernism, positivism and philosophical realism – within the traditions of thought that have emerged since the enlightenment. Findings Postmodernism is rooted in philosophical idealism. As such, it places emphasis on consciousness, identity and being. The essential problem with postmodernism, this paper argues, is not this emphasis. These are legitimate areas of inquiry. Rather, the central problem with postmodernist-informed research is found in the limited range of methodological and conceptual tools in its kitbag. Originality/value Despite the growing influence of postmodernism in its various shades within academia, few of its proponents and critics trace its philosophic origins. In doing so this paper highlights the strengths and limitations of not only postmodernism but also its polar opposite, positivism.

Like many other social science historians, since the late 1980s I have reflected on how postmodernist thinkers like Foucault and Derrida are useful for historians. In 1995 I taught a graduate course on the history of social history, and I looked back on the origins of the field through the eyes of my students who were intrigued with postmodernism. I realized that time has crept up on me. I barely noticed that this field that we developed over the years is no longer young but has come of age and is now part of the accepted canon, one of many subdisciplines. Indeed, my students thought of social science history in much the same way that social science historians viewed traditional political history, a field whose assumptions and perspectives should be critically analyzed, challenged, and revised. These students helped me to see postmodernist criticisms in a new light, not as a sharp break from social science history but rather as emerging at least in part from long-term developments within the field itself. The contributors to the debate on these pages see postmodernism in this way. In various ways, they contend that these challenges, poststructuralist and otherwise, can help us to see within social science history contradictions and tensions that result in both strengths and weaknesses. We can learn from postmodernism without accepting it uncritically; we can reevaluate materialist social history in light of new challenges without rejecting social science history's benefits.

The arguably retrogressive development of infrastructures, socio-political systems and technology in most African states casts a shadow of doubt on Africa’s claim to modernity and by extension, postmodernity. Within the context of the arts, the argument of this paper is premised on two questions: Why do some Nigerian artists claim to be post-modern? What is the viability of such a claim, in a country that, one is wondering whether it is even a modern society? To proffer answers to these questions, the paper enunciates a historical overview of contemporary African art and artists vis-à-vis the generalized concept of post-modernity, from the subjective view that its conceptualization and understanding, have a direct influence on contemporary artistic practice and expression. The paper then interrogates certain arts, within the context of their postmodern trend. The paper's conceptual framework is premised on Peroziosi’s (2009) postulation that artworks are reflective of their original time, place, and production circumstances. The authors conclude that contemporary artists’ responses to and their manifestation of postmodernist trends are such that can be categorised into three: Those who aspire faithfully to postmodernist principles; those who are inspired by postmodernism but want to progress their society by socio-political and economic reflections, criticism and advocacies as well as those who ordinarily would not have been artists perhaps, if not for the freedom provided by postmodernism.

This study has made the implicit links betweenpostmodernism and anarchism explicit in order to uncoverthe philosophical origins of terrorism in the postmodern society. This studydeals with the Anarchists' philosophical background and howPostmodernism fanned it. Anarchists' approach mainly whirls around asingle point agenda, and that is, they are against the state or existence ofstates' borders. I mention again what Researcher has already mentioned,the state and all other international institutions emerged after a rationalapproach as stated by Hegel. Postmodernism denied that reality in everycontour, whether those are institutions or anything else. Anarchism broughtthis concept into a broader paradigm and started denying the existence ofthe state. So, both postmodernists and anarchists have denied the realityin their own capacities, but the grounds and arguments are the same.Anarchism paved the way for multiple active terrors based centrifugalmovements throughout the world.

SUMMARY: The article discusses the two latest novels by the modern Russian classic writer Vladimir Sorokin: Legacy (2023) and especially Doctor Garin (2021). Based on his interpretation of Sorokin’s aesthetical and philosophical program developed elsewhere, Ilya Gerasimov reads Doctor Garin as a literary work that did not go as planned. Dismayed by the unexpected result, Sorokin wrote Legacy as a follow-up meant to explicate Doctor Garin ’s message and explain it to himself and his readers. Therefore, Legacy develops to the extreme only one aspect of the 2021 novel. According to Gerasimov, Doctor Garin was planned as a postmodernist satire on the Russian intelligentsia, modernist literature, and the very society of modernity that produced them. Doctor Garin and his miraculous method of hypermodernism is an obvious reference to Aleksey Tolstoy’s The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1926–1927) about an impostor and adventurist seeking world domination. Sorokin mocks the modernist belief in “certain schemes to improve the human condition” (to quote this belief’s famous academic critic, James C. Scott) and Russian modernist literature, from Vladimir Mayakovsky to Vasily Aksenov, as well as modern governments’ failed political leadership. For over half of the book, Sorokin sustains his original rational design, channeling all his trademark spontaneous prose into “subtexts” – more or less extensive citations of imagined books or diaries introduced in the main text every 20–30 pages of the book. However, at some point, these subtexts disappear, and the protagonist fully immerses himself in Sorokin’s irrational narrative driven by the logic of language rather than ideological considerations. This change of narrative mode transforms everything – from the protagonist’s personality to the novel’s central message. Gerasimov argues that Sorokin chose time as a central argument of his antimodernist criticism, vindicating postmodernism as a condition of multiple isolated chronotopes, with each subculture or identity group living in a unique temporality of its own – contrary to modernism’s belief in progress and the normative universality of time. However, the spontaneous narrative of the novel’s second half produces a different effect. It models social reality as multidimensional and yet fundamentally interconnected. In any of the very distinctive chronotopes, social reality acquires its stable characteristics only situationally in the eyes of an active subject rather than by some preset, anonymous and objective factors, such as temporality or identity. This message is communicated by the narrative independently of its author, who attempted to produce a different conclusion in the follow-up novel Legacy . Inadvertently, instead of affirming a postmodernist worldview – relativist but static – and mocking the old modernism and some hypothetical “metamodernism” anticipated since the late 2010s, Sorokin outlined a program for a truly new, “post-postmodernist” modernism. It combines postmodernism’s multifaceted, multidimensional view of reality with modernism’s ability to produce a coherent narrative anchored in an unequivocal moral position. It embraces multiple temporalities, but also the idea of the future as a condition radically different from the past and present. Gerasimov uses the difference in conceptualizing temporality as the main criterion differentiating the modernist and postmodernist epistemes, in any of their aesthetic versions, as well as the hypothetical new modernism as spontaneously outlined in Sorokin’s Doctor Garin .

In his works on ecological philosophy, Bruno Latour develops an interesting perspective on religion and pluralism. He proposes a new worldview, in which religion is reinterpreted in view of a Gaian philosophy. He extends ‘pluralism’ beyond the anthropocentrism that dominates modern humanism. In his book Facing Gaia Latour includes nonhuman beings in a larger community and works towards a larger concept of eco-humanism. In this paper, I try to reconstruct his position by showing that the philosophical foundation for his interpretation of religion could be called ‘terrarism’ and is to be classified as a form of new materialism. This new interpretation of materialism has postmodernist origins (inspired by Gilles Deleuze), but it is not identical to it, because Latour distances himself from ‘postmodernism’. He wants to positively contribute to a new ontology. My point is that Latour’s ‘terrarist’ grounding of religious pluralism obstructs any foundation of transcendence and, finally, congests a really pluralistic ecumene because he still adheres to the postmodernist idea that we should renounce to a unitary principle of being. His ideas on eco-humanism and pluralistic ecumene could gain momentum if we opened ourselves to a more holistic and spiritual way of thinking, retaking Lovelock’s conception of Gaia. However, Latour’s new-materialistic interpretation of ‘animism’ can be seen as a positive contribution to a new perspective of the world that definitively sets ‘materialism’ aside.

Que peut vouloir dire postmoderne ? Et surtout, quels sont les enjeux qui ont traversé les usages de ce terme ? Ce travail soutient que, par-delà le mauvais objet sémantique qu’il constitue, en tant que signifiant flottant et mot-valise, le postmoderne représente un bon objet d’étude pour cerner certains des enjeux théoriques de la fin du vingtième siècle. Il offre ainsi un prisme pertinent pour appréhender les recompositions du marxisme occidental anglophone, les déchirements de la gauche universitaire anglosaxonne et le renouvellement des diverses pensées critiques, au Royaume-Uni comme aux États-Unis. Dans une approche résolument transdisciplinaire, nous étudions l’émergence et les circulations de ce signifiant sur cet axe transatlantique, les interprétations majeures qui l’ont marqué, ainsi que les usages souvent clivants dont il a fait l’objet. Pour retranscrire l’histoire intellectuelle de cette époque, notre démarche historiciste rend compte des débats suscités par la querelle moderniste étatsunienne des années 1960 et 1970, par les interventions de Jean-François Lyotard et Jürgen Habermas, mais surtout par les contributions de Fredric Jameson, Zygmunt Bauman et Stuart Hall tout au long des années 1980 et 1990. A la croisée des champs de la théorie littéraire, de la sociologie politique et des cultural studies, notre étude prend en compte l’imbrication des dimensions théoriques, affectives et politiques afin de situer au mieux les stratégies idéologiques et institutionnelles de cette histoire sociale des idées. Sous la forme d’une sociologie historique d’un espace intellectuel transnational, cette recherche examine les divers circuits présidant à la construction de ce moment postmoderne, pour mieux comprendre de quoi cette effervescence intellectuelle est le nom
What does the term “postmodern” mean? And above all, what were the forces that changed the way we used it? This work argues that beyond being just an inadequate semantical object, an empty signifier, the term “postmodern” is worth studying as it helps us identify some of the theoretical forces which shaped the end of the 20th century. In that respect, it offers a fitting lens to analyse the reconfiguration of western Marxism in the English-speaking world, the conflicts within the Anglo-Saxon Left at the university level and the regeneration of various streams of critical theory in the United Kingdom as well as in the United States. Taking a transdisciplinary stance, this work studies the emergence and the dissemination of that signifier along a transatlantic axis, the major interpretations that were made about it as well as the often conflicting ways it was used. To chart the intellectual history of that era, our historicist approach will take us to the debates around the modernist controversy in the US in the 1960s and 1970s, the involvement of Jean-François Lyotard and Jürgen Habermas and especially the contributions of Fredric Jameson, Zygmunt Bauman and Stuart Hall in the course of the 1980s and 1990s. Borrowing from the fields of literary theory, political sociology and cultural studies, this work takes into account the combination of theoretical, affective and political dimensions in order to best identify the ideological and institutional strategies at play behind this chapter of the social history of ideas. Being essentially a historical sociology of a transnational, intellectual space, this study explores the various paths that led to the construction of this postmodern moment so that we understand better what was truly behind this intellectual effervescence

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’œuvre narrative de François Bon. Elle concerne donc les romans, récits, autobiographies et biographies qui ont été publiés par l’écrivain de 1982 à 2016. De ce fait, la question centrale d’une nouvelle approche de la lecture et de l’écriture liée au développement du numérique ne sera abordée que lorsqu’elle permettra d’éclairer le mode de fonctionnement des livres de l’auteur de Sortie d’usine. Ce travail s’intéresse ainsi à trois dimensions essentielles du contemporain que l’œuvre questionne de manière incessante et récurrente : l’origine, la mémoire et la problématique d’un réel qui est à la fois imposé comme évidence dans ses manifestations les plus flagrantes et escamoté comme rejeté lorsqu’il remet en question l’ordre et le déroulement du monde dans lequel nous nous trouvons immergé. Elle aborde ainsi un certain nombre de thèmes et réflexions sous-tendus par une littérature au présent : l’émergence du nouveau au sein d’un monde ancien, des signes contradictoires même que ce phénomène induit, l’importance fondamentale que l’époque pourrait revêtir du point de vue de l’histoire. Elle explore, en outre, le lien entre la machine économico-industrielle et un nouvel ordre du monde néo-libéral qui évacue, escamote et recycle à la fois passé et présent en même temps qu’il écrit une histoire dont nous pouvons être assurée qu’elle ne correspond en aucune manière à l’expression d’une vérité. Dans ce travail de recherche est exploré le plus souvent ce qui relève de formes nouvelles, dans la relation même que l’auteur entretient avec des domaines qui ne constituaient pas jusqu’à une époque récente des préoccupations éminemment littéraires : l’univers pop-rock, une phénoménologie de la mécanique et de l’automobile, la présence d’un monde postindustriel en lequel l’usine et l’ouvrier apparaissent comme autant d’emblèmes et symboles
This thesis is devoted to the narrative work of François Bon. Therefore it concerns the novels, stories, autobiographies and biographies which were published by the writer from 1982 to 2016. So, the central question of a new way of reading and writing linked to the development of digital technology will only be addressed when it will shed light on the way books by the author of Sortie d’usine work. This thesis is thus focused on three essential dimensions of the contemporary that François Bon’s work constantly and recurrently questions: the origin, the memory and the problematic of a reality that is both imposed as evidence in its most obvious manifestations and retracted as rejected when it calls into question the order and the unfolding of the world in which we find ourselves immersed. It thus addresses a certain number of themes and reflections underlying a literature in the present: the emergence of the new within an ancient world, even contradictory signs that this phenomenon induces, the fundamental importance that the era could have from the point of view of history. It also explores the link between the economic-industrial machine and a new neo-liberal world order that evacuates, escapes and recycles both past and present while at the same time writing a story that we can be sure it does not in any way correspond to the expression of a truth. In this research work, new patterns are most often explored in the very relationship that the author maintains with fields that until recently did not constitute eminently literary concerns: the pop-rock universe, a phenomenology of mechanics and the automobile, the presence of a post-industrial world in which the factories and the workers appear as so many emblems and symbols

My recent compositions are situated within a postmodern theoretical framework. The heterogeneity of materials and hybridity of musical formation in these works are interpreted and contextualized within a personal reading of postmodern theories. The critical essay traces my aesthetics through a historical investigation into the definition of musical postmodernism. Through extensive citation and analysis of the writings of Julius T. Fraser, Italo Calvino, and Richard Rorty, the essay aims to provide a theoretical context for the interpretation of the musical examples. The creative documentation contains three newly-composed musical works: Piano Trio from Opus 3/c, Opus 6 for Violin, and Opus 7 for Piccolo. The works' postmodern features include creative approaches to the fragmentation of musical time into separate levels, historical allusions, and the exploration of multiplicity.

This thesis is presented as a written text and an exhibition. 1 Both parts result from interdisciplinary research in writing and visual art. Its problematic is the origin of meaning as addressed by recent textual theory, and how that represents an artist's experience of this. Here, 'recent theory' designates 'postmodernism', which includes 'poststructuralism' and refers, too, to 'modernism'. This is reviewed and compared to an artist's experience, using my empirical encounter with art, as an artist, as a possible example. As the comparison occurs in writing and visual art, the latter is, at once, the research data, and a site of its investigation. And writing is a site for exploring art practice (via a case study), and the source for further art. Finding that an artist experiences the origin of meaning as far more multifarious than it appears in recent theory, the comparison additionally proposes a role for the expressive self in art's meaning, in contradistinction to much of postmodernist theory. The typicality of an artist is discussed via a deconstructive notion of exemplarity. And Derrida's deconstruction, which explores diverse features of the textual process, infonns the theoretical method throughout. However, it is not just an artist's experience that proposes a critique of postmodernism's version of the origin of meaning. This is proposed, too, via Richard Rorty's pragmatism, when that opposes 'realism' (which includes empiricism) and idealism (which includes deconstruction). This thesis concludes that it is useful (in Rorty's sense) for the artist to believe in a multifarious agency including the expressive self - experience notwithstanding. In moving from postmodernism's notion of the origin of meaning to the artist's, and beyond, to pragmatism's, this thesis attempts to recognise its reflexive dimension. So its voice (as the ambiguous index of its origins) diversifies postmodernism's voice, tending towards a cacophony, without abandoning a conclusion.

On a May morning in 2013 news broke that a unique figure within British musical life had died unexpectedly in his sleep at the age of fifty-eight. First coming to notoriety in the early 1980s, the composer Steve Martland's output spanned fusions of classical and popular instruments, a song cycle/pop album released on an independent alternative label, a predilection for string music descended as much from Dutch and American minimalists as his more pastoral English forebears, works for his own band of winds, guitars and drums, and ended with a choir piece giving traditional seafaring texts a minimalist treatment. Paralleling this stylistic evolution, all the while he was an opinionated and outspoken left-winger, frequently commenting on both the politics of music-making and broader socio-political topics. But from my perspective most compelling is how he sought to address these concerns with his compositions. With little sustained attention having been paid to Martland beyond journalistic writings and some from a sociological perspective, this dissertation seeks both to be the first tracing of his career but have as its central focus an examination of just how his politics were expressed in his compositions and how this evolved. I cast a critical eye toward the works themselves, sketches held at the British Library and interviews and reviews to build insight into an idiosyncratic artistic response to a period of great social and cultural change in Britain that reveals itself to be a great deal more nuanced, conscientious and sometimes contradictory than it first appears.

Géographe picaresque à cheval sur les côtes atlantique et pacifique, Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Junior signe une œuvre orientée vers l’origine défectueuse et la trajectoire entropique du continent américain, sept générations après la grande migration puritaine à laquelle son ancêtre William fut l’un des premiers à participer. L’enjeu de cette thèse est de revenir sur la façon dont le roman pynchonien cherche à circonscrire les figures de cette latence de la grande faute américaine, un « vice caché, » puisque tel est le titre de son avant-dernier roman, pour retrouver la prairie perdue et composer un contre-espace au sein de la fiction. Ouverte à toutes les modulations historiques, la notion de fantasmagorie occupe une œuvre où le flâneur, dans un dernier geste de résistance politique, est mené à déchiffrer la crise d’une surface surcodée par la déformation optique et les reflets trompeurs de la ville. En traversant les reflets de cette cité sur la colline, Pynchon met à jour une stratigraphie de l’Amérique, une géologie de la faute, où les lignes de faille et brèches dialoguent avec les mythes fondateurs et achèvent de fracturer la géographie idéalisée du continent, signalant la nature défectueuse de son espace mais aussi de son temps, traversé par la crise. Face à l’insuffisance des récits fondateurs et aux spasmes de l’Histoire, l’écriture pynchonienne réagit en s’enroulant autour de nouvelles modalités narratives, pour faire émerger, entre les lignes, les bifurcations et les incertitudes d’un récit historique écrit au « Subjonctif. »
As a picaresque cartographer standing astride the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. stresses the flawed origin and entropic trajectory of the American continent, seven generations after the great Puritan migration to which his forebear William participated. This dissertation aims to recast the way his work defines these latent figures of the American fault, an “inherent vice,” for such is the title of his penultimate novel, in order to recover the lost prairie of the past and recompose an idealized counter-space within the realm of fiction. This work will consider how the notion of phantasmagoria inhabits a cityscape overcoded by optical devices and deceitful distortions that can only be resisted by the flâneur’s politics of loitering. By exposing the dreamworld of this city upon a hill, Pynchon delves into the depths of the continent and starts a stratigraphic study of America: geological fault-lines engage in a dialogue with deficient founding myths and fracture the revered geography of the continent, signaling the defective nature of its space but also of its time, permeated by the cracks of the crisis. To face the failure of founding narratives and the spasms of History, Pynchon’s work unfolds new modalities that, while not essential to narrative, disrupt reading procedures and suffuse his historical novels with the forking paths and counterfactuals of the “Subjunctive” form

The objective of this research study is to attempt to determine whether the realities or life-stories that successful' employees construct with input from both their cultures of origin (external culture) and the organisational (internal) culture impact on their state of motivation in the workplace. This mini-dissertation is approached from both a theoretical and practical point of view. Related theories and perspectives are explored in an attempt to arrive at an understanding of the philosophy pertaining to construction of reality and motivation in the workplace. Individual narrative discussions were conducted with successful employees, also referred to as respondents, in the research and development division of a South African target industry in an effort to determine whether internal and/or external locus of control impacted on construction of reality and subsequently on work-related motivation. The results from a motivation questionnaire were also incorporated in the research study in order to try to determine whether it supported the findings from the narrative discussions. It can be concluded from this study that successful employees are mostly also motivated employees and that both their cultures of origin and the organisational culture impact on their construction of reality regarding motivation in the workplace. Furthermore, this explanation revealed that an employee's construction of reality definitely impacts on his3 motivation. It is also evident from this research study that these employees have an internal and/or external locus of control. It seemed insignificant whether the respondents were motivated by internal or external factors, but what distinguished them from the other employees were the finding that they were in fact motivated by some or other factor. This study confirmed that different motivational factors impact on different employees as a result of their uniquely constructed realities regarding work-related motivation and success. The challenge for organisations therefore lies in determining which specific, culturally determined internal and/or external factors motivate individual employees. This will enable them to instigate, sustain or increase the motivation of their employees.
Thesis (M.A. (Sociology))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2002.

Afrikaans: Dit is nou byna honderd jaar gelede dat A. Kuyper sy waardevolle boek oor die erediens begin met 'n klag. Hy verwoord die gevoelens van vele ander oor die besef van wat die Christelike erediens is of beter gesê behoort te wees: "Jarenlang heerschte op dit punt grenzenlooze verwarring, ... " (Kuyper 1911 :7). Daarmee wil hy geen regverdiging gee vir die pleidooi vir slegs een strakke en onwisselbare vorm van liturgie nie. My sorg is dat die samekomste van die gemeente van die Here nie meer gesien en beleef word binne die raamwerk van God se verbond met sy gemeente nie. In die praktyk kom allerlei liturgiese vraagstukke aan die orde. Dit is egter my oortuiging dat die vraagstukke te veel bespreek word (en 'n plek kry in die erediens) as los- en opsigself staande aspekte van ons aanbidding. 'n Helder insig in dit wat beheersend is vir die erediens, is soek. Vraagstukke oor ons liturgie is geweldig belangrik, aangesien dit nie los staan van ons lewe van elke dag nie. Daar word gesê dat iemand leef soos hy bid. Tereg. Met eweveel goeie reg kan gesê word dat iemand voor die Here leef, soos wat die erediens beleef en ingevul word. Een sprekende voorbeeld behoort duidelik te maak wat hiermee bedoel word. In die Oosters-Ortodokse kerke word die kerkgebou gesien as 'n heiligdom. In hierdie heiligdom word die liturgie afgespeel as 'n heilige drama waarin die lewe van Christus uitgebeeld word. Hierdie drama moet die lidmate help om 'n mistieke ervaring en ontmoeting met God te ervaar. Die manier waarop Christus in so 'n erediens teenwoordig is, is nie deur sy Heilige Gees wat deur geloof in die harte van sy kinders leef en werk nie. Die prediking van die Woord van genade moes grootliks plek maak vir die drama van die goddelike. Geloofsvertroue in die Woord van Christus wat bedien word in die prediking, maak plek vir die belewing van 'n hemelse drama. Die erediens word 'n stuk hemel op aarde. Laasgenoemde word onderstreep deurdat die kerkdeure letterlik gesluit word om 'n ruimte te skep wat afgesluit is van die wêreld. Die lewe en wêreld van elke dag moet verlaat word om gemeenskap met God te kan hê. Vanwee hierdie mistiek in die erediens, kon die kerk in Rusland in die verlede ook heel maklik haar oë toesluit vir 'n daaglikse heilige lewenswandel en sosiale onreg wat die kerk spraakloos gelaat het. In 'n gereformeerde liturgiese besef, is die uitgangspunt nie dat die erediens los staan van die daaglikse lewe nie. Lewe in die erediens en in die lewenspraktyk van elke dag is 'n lewe voor die aangesig van God (coram Deo). Die praktyk van 'n lewe voor die aangesig van God word egter wei gevoed vanuit die erediens en het ook daar sy bron. God se Naam moet weer aangeroep word (Gen 4:26), ons afhanklikheid van die Here se genade vir elke dag en oomblik van ons lewens moet bely word, vanuit die Woord moet ons (geloof) gevoed word sodat ons met lofprysing tot die Here kan sing. In die erediens gaan dit daarom om 'n lewende, aktuele ontmoeting tussen die Lewende Here en sy verbondsgemeente binne 'n spesifieke tyd en konteks. Die liefde tussen die hemelse Bruidegom en sy bruid word gevier en gevoed. Die erediens moet daarom 'n struktuur hê van 'n dialoog - gesprek en reaksie van die een op die ander. Daarmee het ons nie gesê dat die prediking 'n dialoog is nie! In die prediking is dit nou juis die Bruidegom wat tot die hart van sy (sondige) bruid spreek. Die preek is liefdesverklaring van die Bruidegom. Daarin praat die gemeente nie saam nie, maar mag sy deur haar houding laat sien wat dit beteken om uit genade te leef. 'n Reseptiewe/ontvanklike houding van geloof pas by die gemeente. Natuurlik lok die liefdesverklaring lof op in die harte van die gemeente. Die lof van die gemeente is dan eerder 'n belydenis en dankoffer (Hebr 13:15) as wat dit deel is van dialoog in die prediking. Prediking is per definisie monoloog - eenrigtingsgeskenk van Christus aan sy gemeente. Wie wil en kan daarin saampraat? Sinergisme (medewerking tussen God en mens) in die prediking is net so onvanpas as wat dit in ons wedergeboorte is. Die boek Openbaring maak ons attent op die wesenlike eenheid tussen die erediens in die hemel rondom die troon van die Lam en die erediens van die gemeente hier op aarde (Op 4:6-11). Die diens rondom die hemelse troon is niks anders as 'n voortsetting van die diens hier op aarde nie. Dit het daarom veel te sê vir ons belewing van ons aardse erediens wanneer die gemeente van Christus saamkom. In die hemel is 'n erediens aan die gang waaraan nie alleen mense nie, maar ook engele deel het en waarvan die middelpunt ingeneem word deur die Lam wat geslag is vir ons sondes. Hy is die Een wat werd is om die boek met sy seëIs oop te maak, Hy is die Een wat waardig is om die lof van mense en engele te ontvang. Op die minste kan en moet daarom vanuit die Skrif gesê word dat ons erediens elke Sondag (of ander dae van die week) niks minder behoort te wees as 'n aardse samekoms wat reg laat geskied aan die hemelse samekoms (wat reeds aan die gang is en tot in alle ewigheid sal voortduur) nie. Die middelpunt van die hemelse erediens is die Lam wat in die allerheiligsle van die hemel ingegaan het met sy bloed ter wille van Sy verbondsgemeente. Met sy bloed pleit Hy as Hoëpriesler vir die gemeenle by die Vader. Dit doen Hy nie as bedelaar nie, maar as oorwinnaar en gestuurde van die Vader. Daarom die onstuitbare lof van die wat hulle klere gewas het in die bloed van die Lam wal rondom die troon staan. Wal ook al verder in 'n erediens gebeur, Iyk dit onontwykbaar dat bogenoemde die basis vorm van enige erediens wal Christelik wil wees. Binne so 'n erediens aileen kry die doopsformulier en nagmaalsformulier en bevestiging van ampsdraers 'n waardige plek as gawes van die Here. Sonder die leef vanuit die Lam op sy (genade)troon as middelpunt van ons erediens, word al ons sang slegs 'n klinkende metaal en Iuidende simbaal; ons gebede word mistieke en emosionele gesprekke met onsself of op sy meeste met ons naaste; die prediking word 'n uitroep om hulp van die een mens aan die ander. Dit Iyk vir my nie te veel gesê nie, dat die erediens niks minder mag wees as die viering van God se genadeverbond met sy gemeente nie. Los van hierdie besef word alle liturgiese besinning grepe in die lug waarin die een wat die hardste stem het of die langste sy argument kan volhou, die oorwinnaar gaan wees. Dan het die fees van die oorwinning van die Lam verdwyn. Dan laat die erediens in so baie van ons gemeentes my dink aan die laaste vers van Rigters: " ... elkeen het gedoen wat reg is in sy eie oe" (21 :25, vgl. ook 17:6). Van 'n "gesonde ontplooiing van die erediens (waarin) ... die liturgiese ordes kerklik vasgestel en eerbiedig word ... " is daar nie altyd 'n getuienis van nie. (Vergelyk: Handboek vir die Erediens:5). Oor die jare heen is reeds baie uitsprake - positief sowel as negatief - oor die erediens gemaak wat tot gevolg gehad het dat daar ook dan reeds verskeie boeke oor die erediens die lig gesien het wat aan die einde van die dag blote pogings was om die erediens óf af te kraak, óf heeltemal te omvorm. Pogings om die erediens te verdedig het ongelukkig gefaal omrede dit meestal sonder 'n diepgaande begronding van die wese, die doel en die inrigting van die erediens was. Hierdie uitsprake kan in twee kategorieë verdeel word. Die eerste kategorie is beskrywend van aard: Die erediens word beskryf as "die lewensaar van die kerk se lewe" (Barnard, 1981:3) en dat dit 'n "eeu-oue barometer" (Barnard, 1981:3) vir die lewe en arbeid van die kerk is. Die tweede kategorie is meer emosioneel van aard wat juis sinspeel op die gevoel en ervaring: "Die stemming van die eredienste is te somber, kleurloos en onbesield" (Barnard, 1981 :4). Voorts word die erediens getipeer as sonder sorg, dood of styf en dat dit vasgevang is in die kleed van gereformeerdheid. Dit is veral hierdie tweede kategorie uitspraak, nl. die emosionele, wat in ons dag die botoon voer. Ongelukkig bly dit nie by woorde nie, want ons verneem telkens van gevalle waar lidmate van ons kerk oorgaan na ander kerke of groepe waar daar 'n "warmer" atmosfeer SOU heers, of waar daar iets sou "gebeur". Wat meer is, diegene wat oorstap kom nie net uit ons lidmate-korps nie, maar ook uit ons regerende en lerende ampte. Nog 'n ontstellende feit is dat sosiologiese berekeninge daarop dui dat die gereformeerde kerke in die jaar 2000 soos eilandjies in 'n see van Charismatiese groepe sal wees! AI die bogenoemde feite is uiters ontstellend, en dit noodsaak beslis nadere besinning. Een van die faktore wat vir die bogenoemde oorstappers verantwoordelik is, is sonder twyfel die gebrek aan emosionele belewenis (ervaring) in die erediens. Daar dan die rede vir die keuse van die tema van hierdie verhandeling: "Die belewing van God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens." In gereformeerde kringe is daar egter 'n groot gereserveerdheid ten opsigte van en selfs vrees vir enige vorm van emosie in die erediens. Voeg daarby die tradisionele houding dat emosie 'n negatiewe of pejoratiewe verskynsel is, en 'n mens kom te staan voor die verwronge mensbeskouing: die mens is 'n rasionele wese wat wel 'n wil van sy eie het, maar geen emosie nie: as hy wel emosie het, moet hy dit liefs onderdruk! Waar mense egter tot geloof in Christus kom, het mense die behoefte - "voel hulle geroepe" (Barnard, 1981:3) - om die erediens by te woon en God se teenwoordigheid emosionele te beleef. Sodoende het Christenwees feitlik sinoniem geword aan erediensbywoning - iets wat ononderbroke gehandhaaf is vir baie eeue - ongeag die omstandighede. "Dikwels was daar die dreiging van die dood en vervolging, maar dit het nie die Christene afgeskrik nie. Baie martelare, soos byvoorbeeld die van Abitina, het verklaar dat hulle eerder bereid is om die marteldood te sterf as om die Nagmaalsdiens na te laat, want het hulle gesê: "Ons kan nie sonder die nagmaal leef nie" (Barnard, 1981 :3). 'n Baie duidelike bewys dat die teenwoordigheid van God in die erediens eens baie intens beleef was. Of dit vandag nog die geval is, is nie so seker nie. Waar mense in die verlede getrou eredienste bygewoon het, is dit vandag die algemene tendens dat lidmate aan die eenkant bloot net wegloop na ander kerke of groepe waar hulle in 'n meer "warmer atmosfeer" God se teenwoordigheid beleef .... of net eenvoudig wegbly van die erediens en hul tyd in die winkels of op die sportveld deurbring. Die moderne mens is van mening dat die erediens nog geklee is in 'n gereformeerde kleed van die verlede wat meebring dat dit nie in pas is met die hede nie. Daarom is die gereformeerde erediens vir hulle verouderd. In 'n postmoderne samelewing hoort die gereformeerde erediens aan die verlede en pas dit nie in by die huidige beweeglikheid. En asof dit nie al erg genoeg is nie, word die gebede in die erediens as irrelevant beskou. So word die erediens afgemaak as 'n passiewe en kragtelose eenrigting verkeer omdat die mens kwansuis nie aktief (met liggaam en siel) daaraan kan deelneem nie. Die middelpunt waarom al die besware teen die gereformeerde erediens draai is die prediking. "Dit word gesien as te monologies, en daar word gesoek na dialoog; dit is abstrak, teoreties, onbegryplik en irrelevant vir die daaglikse lewe" (Barnard, 1981 :5). Die moderne en postmoderne mens voel dat hy homself, sy wêreld, sy stryd, sy vrae, sy probleme en sy toekoms nie in die erediens kan vind nie. Antwoorde op lewensvrae is wetties, moralisties en negatief. Baie kere word onsekere, soms dubbelsinnige, en selfs geen antwoorde, gegee op vrae wat gevra word. Die algemene gevoel is dan ook dat die prediking en erediens nie rekening hou met die mondigheid van die lidmaat nie. Kritiek teen die inhoud en wese van die erediens het vroeër gegaan oor "die foute en misbruike van die erediens, maar die erediens self en die karakter daarvan, is nie bevraagteken nie" (Barnard, 1981 :6). Vroeër is gevra na die wyse van aanbidding en hoe daar saam aanbid moet word. Vandag gaan die nie meer oor wat die regte wyse van aanbidding is nie, maar of die erediens in sy geheel gesien nog enigsins moontlik is. Die erediens as sodanig het vir die postmoderne mens problematies geword. Nie net die vorm nie, maar die erediens self is verouderd. "There is no modern form of public worship because the modern world is secular" (C. Davis, soos aangehaal deur Barnard, 1981 :7). So word die erediens al stadig maar seker as oorbodig beskou. Volgens Barnard (1981 :7) word beweer dat ons God "alleen nog in die ontmoeting met die naaste" ken en dat die erediens dan alleenlik betekenis het deurdat die naaste in sy nood gedien word. "Daar word beweer dat Christus aileen in die dorstiges en hongeriges te vinde is. God staan nie teenoor ons nie, maar ons ontmoet Hom as lemand wat meely met die Iydendes. Die onvermoë van die moderne mens tot gebed en verering, tot meditasie en Bybellees, word nie as 'n gebrek gesien nie, maar juis as 'n bevryding" (Barnard (1981 :7). Die oomblik wanneer die mens God slegs kan vind in die werklikheid waarin hyself lewe, dan kan jy nie anders as om die gevoel te kry dat daar nie meer plek vir God is in die lewe en wêreld van die moderne mens nie. Na my mening Iê die antwoord in die mens se belewing van God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens. Maar dan moet ook onmiddelik gesê word dat indien die mens nie God se teenwoordigheid in sy/haar eie lewe, op 'n daaglikse basis, beleef nie, hy/sy ook nie God in die erediens sal beleef nie. AI word daar nou ook watter liturgiese model gebruik, hetsy van 'n eng konserwatiewe liturgie tot 'n "way out entertainment" liturgie, as jy nie God se teenwoordigheid in jou eie persoonlike lewe ervaar nie, sal jy dit baie beslis ook nie in die erediens ervaar nie. Hoe pragtig Lied 159 ("God is hier teenwoordig, ...... ), wat soms in die erediens gesing word, ookal mag klink, is die vraag egter nie "of God in die erediens teenwoordig is nie", - ons weet dat God in die erediens teenwoordig is, daaroor is daar geen twyfel nie. God belowe immers in sy Woord dat: ...... waar twee of drie in my Naam saam is, daar is Ek by hulle" (Matt 18:20). Nee, die vraag is eerder "of ek as mens God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens ervaar, en walter impak het dit op my persoonlike lewe." Dit is dus duidelik dat daar iewers ernstige fout is. Daarom is dit belangrik om na te gaan waarom mense die eredienste bywoon, of nie bywoon nie. Alhoewel baie dinge in die erediens (Iiturgie) verander (vernuwe) het, blyk dit tog dat die erediens iets van die bekoring van God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens verloor het. Daar dan die moontlike rede dat die erediens die brandpunt van kritiek, aan die een kant, en vernuwing, aan die ander kant, is nie. Die stroom van kritiek word net sterker en radikaler. Mense bly ontevrede oor die erediens. Maak nie saak hoe die erediens ingerig word nie, daar is altyd mense wat van mening is dat die erediens nie hulle behoeftes aanspreek nie. Daar sal dus opnuut gekyk moet word na wat die erediens werklik is, waarom mense dit bywoon, en hoe dit op 'n sinvolle wyse moet plaasvind. Die doel van hierdie studie is drieledig van aard: (a) om vas te stel of mense werklik God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens ervaar, al dan nie; (b) om vas te stel walter impak (invloed) die belewing of nie-belewing van God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens op die daaglikse lewe van die lidmaat het, en (c) om vas te stel of die belewing van die teenwoordigheid van God in die erediens enigsins verband hou met die lidmaat se persoonlike verhouding met God. Die motivering vir hierdie studie is geleë in die baie variasies in die liturgie, asook in die verskillende "modelle" wat deesdae in die erediens gebruik word dat 'n mens soms wonder waaroor dit werklik gaan in die erediens. Gaan dit oor God of gaan die oor die mens? ... Daarom is dit belangrik dat daar gekyk word na die redes hoekom mense die erediens bywoon - is dit omdat hulle God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens ervaar; of omdat dit maar net nog 'n ritueel (tradisie) is? Of moontlik Iê die rede daarin omdat dit alles oor my eie prestasies gaan (bv. die Fariseers) of omdat hulle wan hoop aan hulleself en heil by God soek (bv. die Tollenaar). Om 'n geheelbeeld van bogenoemde te kry, sal daar ook gekyk moet word na die redes waarom mense nie die erediens bywoon nie - het dit dalk iets te doen moet die nie-ervaring van God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens, al dan nie? Kort-kort lees en hoor jy dat die erediens "user-friendly" - die taal van die nuwe millennium? - moet wees. Die kerk wat God se teenwoordigheid simboliseer, word gereduseer tot 'n "showroom" waar die mens ge-"entertain" moet word deur die "entertainer" die liturg. So gesien, blyk dit vir my asof God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens afgewater word na 'n "skouspel" en "entertainment". Die belang van so 'n navorsing is geleë in die soeke na 'n erediens "styl" of "model" wat, aan die een kant, die mens help om werklik God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens te beleef sonder dat dit nodig is om 'n "skouspel" van die erediens te maak; en, aan die ander kant, om weer aan God sy regmatige plek in die erediens te gee waar Hy alleen verheerlik en gedien kan word. Hopelik sal die navorsing daartoe bydra dat mense weer nuut na die erediens sal kyk en God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens as onontbeerlik vir die Christelike lewe sal besef. Daar is van twee navorsingsmetodes gebruik gemaak, nl. (a) 'n Literatuur ondersoek om te poog om die vraag na 'n Gereformeerde erediens te beantwoord, asook om die belang van God se teenwoordigheid in die erediens opnuut weer te beklemtoon; en .... (b) 'n Kwalitatiewe empiriese ondersoek waar persoonlike onderhoude met tussen 10-15 mense gevoer is aan die hand van vooraf opgestelde vrae in 'n poging om antwoorde op genoemde probleemstellings te kry. English: It is nearly a hundred year ago that A. Kuyper started his book on worship with a complaint, addressing many scholars feelings regarding worship, what it is or should be: "Jarenlang heerschte op dit punt grenzenlooze verwarring, ... " (Kuyper 1911 :7). With this he does not plea for a fixed and immovable liturgy. It is my concern that the gathering of the congregation of the Lord are not seen and experienced within the frame of Gods covenant with his congregation. Many positive and negative have been said about worship over the years. Attempts to defend the liturgy have failed because it lack of a deep found definition of the essence, purpose and establishment of worship. These attempts can be divided into two categories. The one category describes the sermon as the lifeline of the church and that it is a barometer for the work and life of the church. The second category is concentrate more on the emotional - the feeling and experiencing - side thereof. Furthermore it is said that the worship is without any concern, it is dead and has been caught up in the old reformed tradition. In a reformed liturgy the starting point is that worship does not stand apart from the daily life. Life in worship and life in the day-to-day living-practice is life in the face of God (coram Deo). In worship it al come down to a life, actual meeting between the Living God and his covenant church in a specific time and context. Therefore the experiencing of God's presence in the worship of the church is vital to the personal everyday life. This brings the whole question on how God's presence in the worship of the church can be experienced on the theological table. The author has looked at the experiencing of God's presence in the worship of the church by in an attempt to answering the question regarding Reformed worshiping (chapter 1) and how does member of the church really experience the presence of God in the worship (chapter 3). He did this by means of a quality empirical survey on the one hand, and suggests a way of thinking about the presence of God by comparing the different views, e.g. the traditional, the modernism, the postmodernism and contemporary cultures. The presence of God in worship is something different from the omnipresence of God; that it is perceived in faith and that it interrupts the faithful's everyday life by addressing him or her on the self-sacrificing love of Christ for the world in need. God is then present in worship as He is in everyday life, which is in the face of need, and His presence can be more appropriately depicted as a confrontation reelle than a praesentia realis.
Dissertation (MA(Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2008.
Practical Theology
unrestricted

This pioneering textbook explores the theoretical background of cultural variety, both in past and present. How is it possible to study 'culture' when the topic covers the arts, literature, movies, history, sociology, anthropology and gender studies? Understanding Culture examines the evolution of a concept with varying meanings depending on changing norms. Offering a long-duration analysis of the relationship between culture and nature, this book looks at the origins of studying culture from an international perspective. Using examples from the several scholarly traditions in the practice of studying culture, Understanding Culture is a key introduction to the area. It identifies the history of interpreting culture as a meeting point between the long-standing historical investigation of 'humanism' and 'postmodernism' and is a comprehensive resource for those who wish to further their engagement with culture as both a historical and contemporary phenomenon.

The discursive body of postmodernism exploded essentialist ideologies about race, gender, and sexuality. But at what cost? In asserting that bodily materiality can only be grasped through representation, postmodernism placed embodied experience beyond expression. To repair postmodernism’s fragmented, unrepresentable body, Formal Matters turns to an unexpected source: early and mid-century formalisms. Bringing together formalism’s endeavour to give form to the ineffable with postmodernism’s discursive body, Formal Matters argues that embodiment-or the experience of the lived, corporeal body-is not what resists representation but what constitutes form. Working at the intersection of formalist criticism, phenomenology, and body studies, Zoë Roth reassesses the relationship between embodiment and form in a range of modern European authors, including Primo Levi, Maurice Blanchot, Samuel Beckett, Anne F. Garréta, and Hannah Arendt. Through close textual analysis, Formal Matters provides a new method for grasping embodied experience where it appears most attenuated and fragmented. It provides an original account of the body’s relationship to language and representation, while also reinvigorating formalist methods with political potential.

The fight against homophobia in Africa has motivated the emergence of various advocacy initiatives including pro-gay religious forces. One of such initiatives – which have audaciously Christianized homosexuality – has been the Nigerian based, House of Rainbow (LGBT church). Using observations and a critical exploitation of secondary sources, this book chapter critically appraises this church in the light of four socio-religious theories namely, secular humanism, postmodernism, religious liberalism and African conservatism. The chapter is divided into four main parts. The first part provides a theoretical framework composed of four movements namely postmodernism, secular humanism, religious liberalism and African conservatism. The second part explores the origin, mission and structure of House of Rainbow. The third part examines House of Rainbow as postmodernist and religious humanist Christianity; while the last part examines the extent to which the gay-only church is more a survival strategy for Nigerian LGBT people than it is a heresy.

The fight against homophobia in Africa has motivated the emergence of various advocacy initiatives including pro-gay religious forces. One of such initiatives – which have audaciously Christianized homosexuality – has been the Nigerian based, House of Rainbow (LGBT church). Using observations and a critical exploitation of secondary sources, this book chapter critically appraises this church in the light of four socio-religious theories namely, secular humanism, postmodernism, religious liberalism and African conservatism. The chapter is divided into four main parts. The first part provides a theoretical framework composed of four movements namely postmodernism, secular humanism, religious liberalism and African conservatism. The second part explores the origin, mission and structure of House of Rainbow. The third part examines House of Rainbow as postmodernist and religious humanist Christianity; while the last part examines the extent to which the gay-only church is more a survival strategy for Nigerian LGBT people than it is a heresy.

Abstract Immanent in volume 5 of New Medieval Literatures is a preoccupation with origins or beginnings. This is marked in methodological terms, as a return to certain foundational critical models. We see essays here revisiting Freud, Marx, ‘classical’ Marxist literary criticism, theories of intentionality, and the category of ‘community’, which materialist literary history borrowed from anthropology. The preoccupation with origins is also marked by express thematic concerns with the ‘foundations’ of culture: the founding myth of imperial Rome, the originary force of the pains of martyrdom and of the ideals of virginity (originary because they promise complete identification with the divine source), and the foundational Christian institution of monasticism.

The World Political Atlas has been reorganized, the direction of this reorganization is determined by shared sovereignty reflexes, and is applied through strategic decisions. Metropolitan and hinterland borders form the backbone of the newly formed world political atlas Various western- (or the US) origin approaches such as “Neo Liberal Colonialism” , The Clashes of Civilizations”, “The End of History”, and Eurasian Sovereignty”, introduced as the application components of the framework of sovereignty, attract particular attention as the primary sources of the newly formed political atlas . Within the embracing scope of the concept of globalization, “The new World Order” formed through a new political atmosphere with such concepts and claims as “postmodernism”, neo-liberalism”, “the end of history”, and “the cashes of civilizations” can neither maintain its validity nor is wholly embracing in its attempt to perceive the political future of the world . Instead of establishing a comprehensive reconciliatory platform, all of these concepts and claims reflect enormous controversy due to their characteristics leading to constant arguments and, therefore, result in new conflicts, new political actors, new relations of power, and new searches for sovereignty. New “geopolitical gaps” constitute the focus of sovereignty and power relations of the new process.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the features of the visual language of documentary photography and the actual ways of its presentation in the media space on the example of Ukrainian photo books dedicated to revolutionary events in Ukraine. The main problems of modern photojournalism connected with the development of digital technologies are presented, the value of a photo book as an independent project of a photographer is argued, since commercial photojournalism is largely determined by the narratives of its customer. The issues of the transformation of the language of photography both in modern journalism and in the photo project are considered, the main methods of creating the content of a photo story or photo series in photo books are substantiated. Traditional reportage documentary photography, intended for use primarily for commercial purposes in illustrated magazines, is also an important means of creating independent documentary projects or photo books. Such an approach is especially valuable if it reproduces important historical events, as in the Ukrainian photo books under consideration. Ukrainian photo books are distinguished by a variety of techniques for creating content and post-processing methods that appeal to the aesthetics of postmodernism. The use of filmy contrast black and white photography, grainy or blurry images, disruption of the composition, introduce a unique and original form of expressiveness into the photo book. Due to the documentary photography, direct nature of non-staged shootings and the original style of representation, Ukrainian photo books, which are both a document of history and a reflection of the subjective vision of the author, continue to arouse interest and resonate with the viewer.

In 1984 HM King Charles III, then HRH The Prince of Wales, gave the infamous speech to the RIBA in which he was critical of a proposed new extension to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The fervour unleashed in the press signified a unique moment when architecture, conservation, planning and development became a much – and still – talked about part of the public discourse in Britain. Conservation theory had dictated since its early guidelines of practice that new additions to historic works should be clearly distinguished from their original host or the existing environment. Historicism, imitating the existing architecture within an urban setting was taboo, a notion that went back to Ruskin and the anti-scrape lobby of Morris. Unravelling the events of the 1980s, however, reveals that the desire to copy past forms as a means of retaining the past maintained an ongoing and strong legacy. It had become a method of seeking refuge from the failures of modernism and the divergence between traditional and modern forms, language and techniques. Openly acknowledged that modernism was anti- historic and anti-urban, classicism and medieval towns and forms offered the example of outdoor rooms and a predominance of solids over voids. For the then Prince and his many followers, including vast members of the public, the use of a traditional architectural style as infill in a classically inspired building setting was “good” design practice. At this point, ironically, the retreat to historicism also comprised not only mimicking traditional details but also their playful reinterpretation through an esoteric postmodernism. But the topic of new into old had become confused: the critical issue was one of urban design and not the language of infill architecture. Three case studies within the historic core of the City of London, the basis of criticism in Charles’ speeches of 1984 and 1987, will be explored through the popular press in order to understand their lessons and relevance to the complexity of current contemporary conflicts in historic urban areas.