Suchergebnisse

"Arms and Letters analyses the unprecedented number of autobiographical accounts written by Spanish soldiers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These first-person retrospective works recount a range of experiences throughout the sprawling domain of the Hispanic monarchy. Reading a selection of autobiographies in contemporary historical context - including the coalescing of the first modern armies, which were partially populated by forced recruits and the urban poor - Faith S. Harden explains how soldiers adapted the concept of honour and contributed to the burgeoning autobiographical form. Harden argues that Spanish military life writing took two broad forms: the first as a petition, wherein the soldier's service was presented as a debt of honour, and second, as a series of misadventures, staging honour as a spectacle that captivated an audience. Honour was inevitably gendered and performative, and as such, it functioned as one of the overarching metrics of value that early modern men and women applied to themselves and others. In charting how non-elite subjects rendered their lives legitimate through autobiography, Arms and Letters contributes both to a critical genealogy of honour and to the history of life writing."--

This article studies the categories used by M. Foucault in his analyses of power in modern societies: repression ("Reich hypothesis"), sovereignty ("Hobbes hypothesis"), fight, war, dominance ("Nietzsche hypothesis") & "governmentality." Foucault's last category describes normalizated societies & bio-politics. This category substitutes methodologically the "Nietzsche hypothesis" of "Il faut defendre la societe." At this point, Foucault's work is linked with that of G. Agamben, especially to the concepts of "naked life" ("nuda vita") & that of "state of exception." From the point of view of Agamben works, this article approaches an area in shadows in Foucault writings: that of "sovereignty" & "life" relationship. Adapted from the source document.

Recipients of the Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Recognition pay tribute to this Catholic Sister in whose name they are honored. To think about Sor Juana today is to reflect on a collective condition, that of gender -- its constraints & the possibility of overcoming them through the construction of subjectivity; to understand the challenge of Otherness; to assume one's position as a subject; & to claim one's identity & liberty in knowledge, reflection, & poetry. Sor Juana represents the demand for the right to be or not to be, to define being, & to want to be. She forged a counter-current of the concept of woman in the narrow & intolerant, white, Catholic, masculine world. Quotes from her writings & writings about her are presented to illustrate her life, her deeds, & her goals for herself & others. Adapted from the source document.

The author responds to two (2004) critiques of his book, Palabras de filosofos. Oralidad, escritura y memoria en la filosofia Antigua (Words of the Philosophers. Orality, Writing, & Memory in Ancient Philosophy). His objective in his book was to capture the perspective of the ancient Greek philosophers in order to provide a distant gaze on modern philosophy. The philosophy of ancient times was a product of voice & memory, not writing. Verbal discourse only gradually replaced the oral discourse; what we know as written today from those philosophers was once elaborated from hearing & memory. Buried in their book of theory today, philosophers are disconnected from social life as the ancients were not. Without the ability to speak out loud, the evocation of passion & emotion are limited. As Enrique Serrano noted in his critique, the book contributes to understanding the history of the discipline. M. Pflum

A review essay on a book by Francisco Fernandez Buey, Marx (sin ismos) ([Marx (without Isms)] Barcelona: El Viejo Topo, 1998). Buey's overly specific & detailed approach to the Spanish perspective on Karl Marx's life is criticized. It is contended that this attempt to produce a biography of Marx outside of the vast historical & political contexts that have been constructed over the past century falls into the first wave of Marx biographies that were published before the 1917 Russian Revolution, works that focused on parallels between his life events & his writings. The approach is described as lapidary-like, where pieces of Marx's life & work are cut from their historical & philosophical traditions & presented as an assortment of erudite minutiae. Though the lack of historical & theoretical cynicism toward Marxism proves refreshing, Buey's understanding of materialism, empiricism, & humanism (& other "isms" he wishes to abandon) appears ambiguous & inaccurate, seriously undermining the book's academic value. D. Bajo

In Palabras de filosofos. Oralidad, escritura y memoria en la filosofia Antigua (Words of the Philosophers. Orality, Writing, & Memory in Ancient Philosophy), Sergio Perez treats the understanding of philosophy in the ancient Greek world. It is argued that in his emphasis on the importance of orality in philosophical tradition that he sets out to denaturalize contemporary beliefs about this theoretical activity. Perez is able to critique modern academic philosophy from his standpoint, & his method in doing this is one of the principle contributions of this book. Perez laments the disconnection between theory & life, between knowledge & virtue, in modern philosophers. M. Pflum

This article reviews Juan J. Linz's scientific contribution to elite studies, a field he has researched enthusiastically throughout his intense academic life. It explores the set of factors that led him to choose this subject as a topic of study: his personal & intellectual concerns, the impact of certain maestros & their publications, as well circumstances & opportunities arising at different times. His approach was eminently empirical, with persistent references to the case of Spain & its constant, albeit discontinuous progress. The article ends with reference to Linz's intellectual legacy in this area of political science & sociology through the writing of both former postgraduate students & "adopted students.". Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.