scholarly journals Seeking the Dharma on the World Stage: Lü Bicheng and the Revival of Buddhism in the Early Twentieth Century

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 558
Author(s):  
Peng Liu

This article focuses on the Chinese woman writer Lü Bicheng 呂碧城 (1883–1943) and her relationship with the worldwide movement for the revival of Buddhism in the early twentieth century. Lü rose up in the context of the “new woman” ideal and transcended that ideal as she rejected the dualistic thinking that was prevalent in her time. She embraced both reason and religion, as well as both modern and traditional ideas. Her story demonstrates that religion and the creation of the “new woman” were not mutually exclusive in her life. In the 1920s and 1930s, Lü traveled extensively in the United States and Europe and eventually converted to Buddhism after she witnessed its popularity in the West. During this period, she successfully created a social space for herself by utilizing Buddhist sources to engage in intellectual dialogues on paranormal phenomena and animal protection. At the same time, she carved out a place for Buddhism in the discourse on the convergence and divergence of science and religion after the First World War (1914–1918).

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARTEMIS MICHAILIDOU

Popular perceptions of Edna St. Vincent Millay do not generally see her as a poet interested in so-called “domestic poetry.” On the contrary, Millay is most commonly described as the female embodiment of the rebellious spirit that marked the 1920s, the “New Woman” of early twentieth-century feminism. Until the late 1970s, the subject of domesticity seemed incompatible with the celebrated images of Millay's “progressiveness,” “rebelliousness,” or “originality.” But then again, by the 1970s Millay was no longer seen as particularly rebellious or original, and the fact that she had also contributed to the tradition of domestic poetry was not to her advantage. Domesticity may have been an important issue for second-wave feminists, but it was discussed rather selectively and, outside feminist circles, Millay was hardly ever mentioned by literary critics. The taint of “traditionalism” did not help Millay's cause, and the poet's lifelong exploration of sexuality, femininity and gender stereotypes was somehow not enough to generate sophisticated critical analyses. Since Millay seemed to be a largely traditional poet and a “politically incorrect” feminist model, second-wave feminists preferred to focus on other figures, classified as more modern and more overtly subversive. Scholarly recognition of Millay's significance within the canon of modern American poetry did not really begin until the 1990s.


2021 ◽  
pp. 55-74
Author(s):  
Noelle Hedgcock

Contributor Noelle Hedgcock examines the tension the studios create when they market the stars of their prestige pictures—Betty Davis, Joan Crawford, Evelyn Venable, and Joan Fontaine, as "authentically-Victorian" even as the women themselves are demonstrating characteristics of an emerging class of modern women. The studio's mixed strategies result in an ideological strain that underscores the mediated nature of the “New Woman” in mid-twentieth century Hollywood and the United States. Images of the “New Woman” could circulate, but only when set in very specific conditions. Hedgcock's insightful analysis shows the studios allowed the “New Woman” to appear as a rich, young woman in an urban setting, but not in small-town, middle-class, conservative America. In this way, Hedgcock suggests, the studios appeal to the aspirations and anxieties of womanhood found in their audiences, but only if they also left space for their stars to fit the less sophisticated notions of womanhood.


Author(s):  
Laleen Jayamanne

The first chapter offers a fresh approach to this canonical silent film by focusing on Louise Brooks’s kinetic performance as Lulu and the tradition of dance and abstract movements she draws on. The early twentieth-century feminist political slogan, the ‘New Woman’, is embodied, contested, and rendered ambiguous in this late Weimar silent film through Brooks’s technical skills as a modern dancer. Pabst and Brooks as co-creators draw an intimate link between the dynamism of the silent-film image and that of Lulu as dancer. I see these as a gift to the rather sedentary female scholar of cinema.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-413
Author(s):  
Thosaeng Chaochuti

Previous research has shown that the New Woman was a global phenomenon and that fiction was crucial to the emergence of this New Woman. One work that was of particular importance was Henrik Ibsen's A doll's house. This article examines the rise of the New Woman in early twentieth century Thailand. It traces the campaigns for gender equality that Thai women waged in local newspapers and magazines. It also examines the reactions towards these campaigns by three major authors, all of whom turned to Ibsen's play in their engagement with the New Woman phenomenon.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-33
Author(s):  
T.N. GELLA ◽  

The main purpose of the article is to analyze the views of a famous British historian G.D.G. Cole on the history of the British workers' and UK socialist movement in the early twentieth century. The arti-cle focuses on the historian's assessment and the reasons for the workers' strike movement intensi-fication on the eve of the First World War, the specifics of such trends as labourism, trade unionism and syndicalism.


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