Re-visiting the Arab Cultural Renaissance: Al-Nahda and the Reception of European Literature

Al-Nahda – the Renaissance corresponds to the advent of “modern civilization” (al-tamaddun al-ḥadîṯ) in Egypt and the East through contacts with the West. The Renaissance is opposed to the Middle Ages (al-qurûn al-wusṭâ), times of darkness. It is intended, more than a renewal of old models, a revolution of knowledge and thought. It is born of more or less violent contacts with the outside. Just as the Renaissance of the East is fertilized by the Western contributions so the European Renaissance which preceded it is largely attributed to the philosophical and scientific mediation of the Arabs of Andalusia. My research is a re-consideration of al-Nahda, highlighting the development of contemporary Arabic literature as a result of the late-19th – early 20th cultural rebirth of the Arab world, with a special stress on the French-Egyptian cultural transfer and the importance of translation.

Radical-Nationalist Podcasting under a Post-Fascist Condition

This article sketches fascism’s ideological morphology under a post-fascist condition. It builds empirically on three years of ethnographic studies of the radical-nationalist podcast Motgift [Antidote], disclosing that (i) fascist multivocality characterizes and feeds the rhizomic structure of Swedish radical nationalism; (ii) fascist narration locates protagonists and antagonists in driving a plot of ‘genocide against the white race’; and (iii) fascist temporality reinforces ideas of a lost past and degenerated present – prompting a struggle for cultural rebirth and racial revival. The multivocality, narration, and temporality of Motgift illuminate the radical-nationalist politics at work under a post-fascist condition: the state of ideological reconfiguration pondering fascism’s historical downfall.

The McElroy Brothers, New Media, and the Queering of White Nerd Masculinity

Nerd masculinity is in the midst of a cultural rebirth. Podcasters the McElroy Brothers—Justin, Travis, and Griffin—are exemplars of how nerds queer contemporary masculinity discourse. Their podcasts’ multidimensional characters, bodily practices, and inclusive language reconstruct a nerd masculinity that does not pine for hegemonic masculinity as nerd media of the past. However, while the Brothers’ performance of masculinity may illuminate new frontiers for the inclusion of gender and sexual diversity, it yet retains an inextricable connection to their Whiteness. Thematic analysis of 41 episodes across three of the McElroy’s properties shows how the Brothers reconceptualize nerd masculinity while highlighting their lack of transformative attention to matters of race.

Kultura źródłem polityki. Chasydzka praca Martina Bubera

This paper deals with the relationship between culture and politics. Martin Buber, one of the leading representatives of cultural Zionism, believes that a nation must fi rst build its own culture and then establish state institutions or governments based on it. The paper presents Martin Buber’s works concerning the Hasidic world and the reactions that they aroused among Western Jews. For many of them, Buber’s Hasidic stories became the basis for their spiritual and cultural rebirth, as a result of which they began to identify with the Jewish people again. However, the dispute between political and cultural Zionists has not been settled yet.

The Birth of the Bureau, Coupled with the Birth of J. Edgar Hoover, Ensured the FBI’s Attention to African American Literature

This part aims to add depth and detail to less-familiar portraits of Hoover as a young militant, and to establish the character of the also young law enforcement agency he joined in the wake of World War I. Explaining why Hoover and the Bureau began to pursue African American writing, it presents the first of five theses: namely, The birth of the Bureau, coupled with the birth of J. Edgar Hoover, ensured the FBI's attention to African American literature. Section 1 recounts how the pre-Hoover Bureau emerged amid the social divisions of early twentieth-century America, and how it cultivated both literary publicity and public anti-New Negroism to whet an undivided national appetite for federal policing. Section 2 examines how the pre-Bureau Hoover managed his surprising familiarity with Afro-America. Section 3 establishes that with Hoover's hiring by the Bureau during the first Red Scare and the dawn of Harlem's cultural rebirth, the FBI's racial and literary preoccupations only deepened. Under Hoover's watch, the earliest Harlem Renaissance writing became the common passion of Bureau anti-New Negroism and “lit.-cop federalism,” the latter defined as the effort to inject a compelling federal police presence into the U.S. print public sphere.

Humanism

Humanism was the major intellectual movement of the Renaissance. In the opinion of the majority of scholars, it began in late-14th-century Italy, came to maturity in the 15th century, and spread to the rest of Europe after the middle of that century. Humanism then became the dominant intellectual movement in Europe in the 16th century. Proponents of humanism believed that a body of learning, humanistic studies (studia humanitatis), consisting of the study and imitation of the classical culture of ancient Rome and Greece, would produce a cultural rebirth after what they saw as the decadent and “barbarous” learning of the Middle Ages. It was a self-fulfilling faith. Under the influence and inspiration of the classics, humanists developed a new rhetoric and new learning. Some scholars also argue that humanism articulated new moral and civic perspectives and values offering guidance in life. Humanism transcended the differences between the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, as leaders of both religious movements studied and used the ancient Latin and Greek classics. Because of the vast importance and broad scope of humanism, it is not surprising that scholars have studied it intensively and view it in different ways. This article provides a sampling of some of the best and most influential scholarship on the subject and demonstrates the broad impact of humanism in the era of the Renaissance and Reformation.