Recherche multi-critères

Alienation and defamiliarization in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) par Annalena Geisler, publié le 15/06/2022

In Americanah, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of high school lovers Ifemelu and Obinze, their experiences of migration to the US and the UK, and their reunion 13 years later back in Nigeria. Through the means of defamiliarization and the depiction of Ifemelu’s sense of alienation in the US, Adichie sheds new light on America’s relationship with race and racism.

The tumultuous history of the right to vote in the U.S. par Marion Douzou, publié le 23/09/2021

This presentation aims at giving an overview of the history of the right to vote in the United States, from the Founding Fathers to voter suppression in the twenty-first century.

The American Wilderness: an Ambivalent Image of Self-regeneration and Psychological Disintegration. From Dead Man (1995) to Into the Wild (2007). par Martin Berny, publié le 03/06/2021

This presentation deals with the wilderness motif in contemporary American literature and American cinema. Going back to the origins of this ambivalent image, it aims at explaining the underlying ideology that actively contributes to the endless process of mythogenesis of the American nation. On the individual level, it is through a journey of self-reinvention or reconstruction of the self that the wilderness appears as either a path to a metaphorical rebirth or as a dangerous place where one has to face the perils of psychological disintegration. Focusing on historical notions and topics such as Turner’s Frontier thesis, the Transcendentalist movement, or the representation of Native Americans in popular culture, this article deals with the limits of the American dream of self-transcendence. It explores works such as Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man (1995) and both Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction bestseller Into the Wild (1996) and its film adaptation directed by Sean Penn (2007).

La nature sauvage dans la guerre du Vietnam par Pierre Journoud, publié le 20/05/2021

Cet article présente trois conceptions de la nature vietnamienne (nature-refuge, nature-cible et nature-martyre) durant la guerre du Vietnam (1955-1975).

Scottish Civic Nationalism: An Opportunity for Migrants? par Fabien Jeannier, publié le 12/05/2021

This article aims at critically addressing the SNP's very favourable discourse on immigration and immigrants’ rights in Scotland from a historical and contemporary perspective.

Gandhi’s and Ambedkar’s views on caste: the representation of historical figures in Arundhati Roy’s The Doctor and the Saint par Fleur-Ann Dany Brouard, publié le 31/12/2020

In The Doctor and the Saint, Arundhati Roy compares and contrasts the lives and beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar, the father of the Indian Constitution. Analyzing the two men's trajectories, Roy seeks to explain their conflict on the subject of Untouchability during the Second Round Table Conference (1931). In doing so, she dismantles the myth of Gandhi's sainthood and radical progressivism while defending and justifying Ambedkar's attack on Hinduism. Through its references to Narendra Modi's career, The Doctor and the Saint also offers insight into India's contemporary politics.

“Captives of ignorance”? Women, education and knowledge in the Victorian period par Véronique Molinari, publié le 30/12/2020

[Article] This article provides an overview of the different ways in which women were educated in the Victorian period, from home-schooling to private day-schools and boarding schools. While the campaign for educational reform was seen, within the context of the Industrial Revolution and the growing feminist movement, as a key to freedom, improvements in female education were also met with resistance.

Chemical Materials as Heritage: The Hafkenscheid Collection (ca. 1825) at Haarlem par Ernst Homburg, Ineke Pey, publié le 16/10/2020

[DNL chimie] This article demonstrates that the Hafkenscheid Collection is unique and very broad (370 samples), dating back to the years ca. 1800 – ca. 1835, and that the study of the collection has a great relevance for fields as different as art history, history of chemical technology, and business history.

Giving Voice in Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick: Disability in a Modern Rewriting of Richard III par Méline Dumot, publié le 09/10/2020

This article examines a contemporary rewriting of Shakespeare’s Richard III by Chinese-American playwright Mike Lew. In his play Teenage Dick (2018), Lew gives a new voice to Shakespeare’s well-known villain. Noticing that one of the most famous disabled characters in theatre history is rarely – if ever – performed by a disabled actor, Lew centers his play on Richard’s experience as a disabled teenager. The play questions our current vision of disability, both in the theatrical world and in our society. This article explores the ways in which Lew adapts the Shakespearean legacy to produce a new narrative and envisions the concept of accessibility in multiple ways.

Feminist and queer studies: Judith Butler’s conceptualisation of gender par Marilou Niedda, publié le 02/10/2020

This article is an introduction to Judith Butler's conception of gender: central to Butler's theory is the difference between sex and gender and the conception of gender as performance. The article also explores the impact of her work on queer theory.

La disparition des bisons des Grandes Plaines nord-américaines par Frédéric Moreau, publié le 14/05/2020

Ce texte est la traduction du chapitre "The Vanishing New World", tiré de l'ouvrage Beyond Geography: The Western Spirit against the Wilderness de Frederick Turner. Dans cet extrait, l'auteur évoque le rapport des colons au bison, animal emblématique réduit à un trophée de chasse ou exploité de manière industrielle, au cours du 19ème siècle dans les Grandes Plaines nord-américaines.

The Perception of Male Homosexuality in Great Britain from the 19th century to the Present par Nishtha Sharma, publié le 13/01/2020

From the emergence of homosexuality as a subculture to the definition of "camp" and the creation of the Gay Liberation Front, this article explores the perception of male homosexuality in the United Kingdom from the 19th century to the present.

"60% of new jobs are precarious jobs": A conversation with Ken Loach par Ken Loach, publié le 14/11/2019

Ken Loach was invited to the Festival Lumière in Lyon to present his new film, Sorry We Missed You, about a family struggling in the wake of the 2008 financial crash. His masterclass at the Comédie Odéon was moderated by Thierry Frémaux, director of the Festival, and Clémentine Autin, a French politician. This resource is an edited transcript of the discussion about the film.

Reconfigurations of space in Partition novels par Sandrine Soukaï, publié le 19/09/2019

This article examines two Indian novels Clear Light of Day (1980) by Anita Desai and The Shadow Lines (1988) by Amitav Ghosh along with Burnt Shadows (2009) by Anglo-Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie, books written about the Partition of India that accompanied independence in 1947. Partition led to violence on an enormous scale; the exact number of people who were killed has never been ascertained, and estimates vary between one and two million. Partition also caused massive displacements of population, estimated between 12 and 18 million. This paper examines the way in which space – national, familial and communal – was divided and then reshaped by and through Partition. After discussing the fractures, ruptures and uprooting brought about by this trauma, I will consider the way in which diasporic writers devise fictional maps of memory of the past that foster exchanges across geographical borders.

Brexit Shorts: Dramas From a Divided Nation par Marion Coste, publié le 12/04/2019

Cette ressource présente le projet des « Brexit Shorts », série de neuf courts-métrages diffusés un an après le résultat du référendum sur la sortie de l’Union européenne. Vous trouverez sur cette page quelques pistes d'analyse, puis la série de courts-métrages dans son intégralité.

All men are created equal? Barack Obama and the American Revolution par Steven Sarson, publié le 28/03/2019

Barack Obama believes that the American nation's founding documents—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (including the Bill of Rights)—have been the driving forces of American history and remain the foundations of American politics today. In this talk we will explore Obama's analyses of these documents and of their legacies since, in particular in relation to slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights. We will look at the words of Barack Obama, as derived from his writings and speeches, and also at historical sources from the time of the American Revolution, through the Civil War, and to the Civil Rights era.

Race and the three phases of the American Revolution par Olivier Richomme, publié le 25/03/2019

The American Revolution, the Civil War and Reconstruction period, along with the Civil Rights era can be seen as three phases of the same struggle for racial equality in the U.S. The Declaration of Independence established the revolutionary ideal of equality among men. This promise was not fulfilled by the Reconstruction Amendments. Some might argue that the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 the Voting Rights did not bring about true racial equality. In a sense, the American Revolution can be envisioned as a work in progress.

Brexit and the challenges of the Irish border par Fabien Jeannier, publié le 14/02/2019

Northern Ireland voted against Brexit, with a shorter majority than Scotland. However, Brexit is bound to happen. Although European integration has played an important role in mitigating the border effects with the Republic of Ireland in the context of a post conflict symbolic reconciliation, the Brexit negotiations have raised a very thorny issue: can a border be soft and hard at the same time?

Measuring the Global Influence of a City par Hiroo Ichikawa, publié le 31/05/2018

Le professeur Hiroo Ichikawa de la Mori Memorial Foundation nous explique le fonctionnement du Global Power City Index qui classe les métropoles mondiales selon 70 critères. La définition de la « puissance » ("power") adoptée dans ce classement est large et repose aussi bien sur l'attractivité économique que le poids touristique ou l'efficacité énergétique et environnementale. Les métropoles s'appuient sur les résultats du rapport pour infléchir leurs politiques, et l'auteur souligne le rôle performatif de ce type de classements.

Donald Trump's First State of the Union Address par Marion Coste, publié le 31/01/2018

Cette transcription du discours prononcé par Donald Trump devant le Congrès des États-Unis le 30 janvier 2018 est issue du site officiel de la Maison Blanche. La division en parties, ajoutée par la Clé des langues, est destinée à faciliter la recherche d'extraits qui pourraient faire l'objet d'un travail en classe. Une sélection d'articles de presse est également proposée en fin de ressource.

Dearborn, Michigan: a city divided by religion, race and class par Marion Coste, publié le 12/09/2017

Ce documentaire de 16 minutes intitulé "Dearborn, Michigan" explore la vie de cinq américains originaires de Dearborn, ville qui abrite la plus grande mosquée aux États-Unis. Il est ainsi particulièrement adapté au programme de seconde, dont l'entrée culturelle "l'art de vivre ensemble" permet une réflexion sur les villes et les territoires.

La présidence Obama ou la confirmation d’un renforcement institutionnel transpartisan de l’exécutif américain par Hamed Jendoubi, publié le 29/05/2017

La présidence américaine, dirigée par celui que l'on présente volontiers comme le « leader du monde libre », est aujourd'hui une institution bien plus puissante que lors de sa création en 1787. Cet article partira d'une analyse de la présidence de Barack Obama pour insister sur le caractère transpartisan de ce renforcement institutionnel, qui est aussi bien le fait de présidents démocrates que de leurs homologues républicains.

Immigration to the United States of America: Current Challenges and Debates par Anne-Kathrin Marquardt, publié le 11/05/2017

This paper, written in April 2017, gives an overview of recent immigration to the United States and the immigrant population of America. It outlines the consequences for the demographics and politics of the country and summarises the contentious issues in the debate around immigration reform. It focuses on executive action taken since 2012, during the Obama and Trump presidencies, right up to the present day.

L’Union européenne au risque de ses contradictions : la question du déficit démocratique par Willy Beauvallet, publié le 11/04/2017

Dans le cadre de la journée de formation organisée à l'ENS de Lyon en février dernier sur la nouvelle thématique de la DNL, Willy Beauvallet, Maître de conférences en science politique à l’Université Lyon 2, expose les contradictions de l'Union européenne.

Où est la crise en Europe ? par Louis Navé, Antoine Ullestad, publié le 28/03/2017

Les temps sont durs pour l’Union européenne qui a été, et continue d’être, secouée par les crises économiques et financières, migratoires, sanitaires et sécuritaires pour ne citer que les plus récentes et les plus perceptibles. La dernière en date est peut-être celle qui menace le plus l’édifice européen : une crise d’appartenance, sur fond de défiance populaire. La question de la démocratie européenne revient au-devant de la scène marquée par le Brexit, symbole à lui tout seul de la crise des États dans l’Union européenne. Cette crise de la démocratie interroge le système politique et juridique de l’Union, son mode de gouvernance et la manière dont cohabitent les sphères de décision nationales et européennes.

L’État nation britannique face au projet de construction européenne : le partenaire difficile ? par Emma Bell, publié le 28/03/2017

On affirme souvent que le Royaume-Uni a toujours été un « partenaire difficile » lorsqu’il s’agissait de construire un projet politique européen (George 1998). Si les Britanniques ont joué un rôle très important dans la construction d’un projet économique commun, en soutenant notamment l’Acte unique européen, ils ont toujours refusé l’idée d’une Europe fédérale ou d’une « union plus étroite ». Afin d’expliquer cette position, nous nous pencherons d’abord sur le rôle qu’ont joué les Britanniques dans la construction d’un projet économique commun, en démontrant que, malgré leur réticence initiale, ils ont largement contribué à façonner ce projet, laissant derrière eux ce que Pauline Schnapper qualifie d’« empreinte idéologique forte » (Schnapper 2014 : 99-103). Ensuite, nous examinerons la question épineuse de la souveraineté britannique dans son contexte historique et actuel afin de mieux comprendre le refus du projet politique européen.

President Obama's Farewell Address - January 2017 par Marion Coste, publié le 12/01/2017

Obama a profité de son discours d'adieux pour faire le bilan de ses deux mandats et rendre hommage à sa femme et ses filles, ainsi qu'à son Vice-Président, Joe Biden. "Yes We Did", a-t-il conclu. La Clé anglaise vous propose une transcription de ce discours d'adieux, ainsi qu'une retransmission de son allocution. Cette retranscription, qui provient du site officiel de la Maison Blanche, a été divisée en plusieurs parties afin de faciliter la recherche d'extraits pouvant faire l'objet d'une étude en classe.

Radical Brownies documentary: berets, badges and social justice par Marion Coste, publié le 06/01/2017

Le Guardian et la Bertha Foundation présente dans ce documentaire le groupe des Radical Monarchs, qui repense le mouvements des girl scouts aux Etats-Unis. Loin de la couture et des ventes de cookies, ses membres défendent la communauté LGBTQ, s'intéressent à la protection de l'environnement, soutiennent le mouvement 'Black Lives Matter' et réfléchissent aux problèmes de justice sociale.

Questions d'actualité : Décès de Fidel Castro, retour sur les relations entre les Etats-Unis et Cuba par Marion Coste, publié le 28/11/2016

L'annonce du décès de Fidel Castro est l'occasion de revenir sur l'histoire houleuse des relations entre les États-Unis et Cuba. Cette page regroupe plusieurs articles de journaux revenant sur le parcours de Castro, mais aussi des ressources sur le dégel des relations entre les deux pays amorcé par Barack Obama. Une courte vidéo publiée par le site d'information Vox permet de résumer à grands traits l'histoire entre les deux pays. Enfin, vous trouverez également sur cette page des articles universitaires sur l'avenir des relations américano-cubaines après la mort de Castro.

Élections américaines : les discours clés par Marion Coste, publié le 10/11/2016

Nous vous proposons sur cette page les vidéos des discours de Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton et Barack Obama à l'issue des élections américaines, ainsi que les transcriptions de ces discours. Certains passages ont été mis en gras par la Clé afin de faire ressortir les idées charnières. Nous vous proposons également quelques pistes d'analyse.

Questions d'actualité : US Election Day (08/11/2016) par Marion Coste, publié le 08/11/2016

Vous trouverez sur cette page des liens vers les directs mis en place par les grands quotidiens anglophones, un état des lieux des campagnes des candidats au jour J, ainsi que des articles sur le rôle des "swing states" et sur la violence qui a marqué ces élections présidentielles.

Gun Nation: A Journey to the Heart of America's Gun Culture par Marion Coste, publié le 23/09/2016

Le journal britannique The Guardian propose une série de douze documentaires, réalisés en partenariat avec la Bertha Foundation. Cette série s'attache à sensibiliser le public aux enjeux mondiaux contemporains et à faire avancer les débats sur les sujets de société.

L'Amérique est-elle encore un modèle ? par Nicolas Baverez, publié le 27/04/2016

À l'occasion du débat "L’Amérique : encore un modèle ?", organisé par la Villa Gillet en partenariat avec le Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse et l’Opéra de Lyon, la Clé anglaise vous propose ce texte de Nicolas Baverez sur le rôle des États-Unis dans le monde aujourd'hui. De quel modèle l’Amérique est-elle le nom ? Les États-Unis, qui s’affirment encore aujourd’hui comme la première puissance mondiale, sont-ils, à long terme, toujours un modèle viable ?

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's campaign ads par Marion Coste, publié le 18/03/2016

La comparaison de ces deux spots publicitaires pour les campagnes de Hillary Clinton et de Donald Trump peut s'inscrire dans une séquence sur les thèmes "Visions d'avenir: créations et adaptations" ou "Lieux et formes de pouvoir". Une analyse des stratégies de communication de ces deux candidats peut être l'occasion de faire un point sur les élections américaines.

Quelles solutions irlandaises ? La Famine dans The Nation, 1845-1848 par Anne-Catherine de Bouvier, publié le 29/02/2016

Cet article se propose d’aborder la manière dont The Nation, organe du groupe Young Ireland, réagit à la Famine. Le reproche fut parfois fait aux nationalistes irlandais d’avoir eu la critique facile, sans rien avoir proposé de concret. Nous verrons que des propositions existaient bel et bien, mais d’une faisabilité pour le moins hypothétique: à cause du flottement, des évolutions ou des ruptures doctrinales du mouvement, mais aussi parce qu’elles se heurtaient à l’idéologie dominante. Une approche essentiellement chronologique permettra de suivre le traitement de la question dans les colonnes du journal, en fonction des contextes domestique et international.

Republican Electoral Strategy after Realignment: Electioneering and the Ideological Shift par Andrew Ives, publié le 29/02/2016

This article argues that the ideological shift undertaken by the Republican Party in the late 1970s, namely the move away from the consensus politics of Eisenhower’s Modern Republicanism towards the so-called Reagan Revolution, was motivated primarily by electoral considerations and the pursuit of power. The southern strategy, the adoption of socially conservative policies and the embracing of supply side economics, are analyzed in light of their electoral appeal, and are seen as a delayed response to the New Deal realignment of 1930-32.

Élections présidentielles américaines 2016 - Les primaires par Fabien Poète, publié le 19/02/2016

La Clé des langues vous propose un article sur les primaires américaines permettant de faire le point sur les candidats encore en lice (Hillary Clinton et Bernie Sanders pour les démocrates, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio et Donald Trump pour les républicains), de résumer les grandes lignes de leurs programmes et de retracer les moments importants de leurs campagnes. L'article renvoie vers de nombreux liens (articles de journaux, extraits vidéos) pouvant faire l'objet d'une étude en classe.

The 1915 Gallipoli Campaign: the significance of a disastrous military campaign in the forging of two nations par Fabien Jeannier, publié le 10/02/2016

Cet article propose une genèse de la campagne de Gallipoli en rappelant ses différentes étapes et ses chiffres clés, mais aussi une analyse de l’impact qu’a eu cette débâcle militaire dans la construction identitaire de la Nouvelle-Zélande et de l’Australie.

The Commonwealth of Nations - A selective chronology par Fabien Jeannier, publié le 01/02/2016

Fabien Jeannier propose une chronologie sélective de l’histoire du Commonwealth, de la fin du 19ème siècle à la fin du 20ème siècle. Elle permet notamment de récapituler les différentes étapes de la relation de la Grande-Bretagne à ses Dominions.

Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 – selection of documents for class use par Fabien Jeannier, publié le 22/01/2016

Une sélection de documents pouvant être exploités en classe dans le cadre d’une séquence sur les Jeux de Commonwealth de Glasgow.

The Gallipoli Campaign 1915 – selection of documents for class use par Fabien Jeannier, publié le 22/01/2016

Une sélection de documents pouvant être exploités en classe dans le cadre d’une séquence sur la Campagne de Gallipoli.

Gallipoli and the First World War - Online Resources par Fabien Jeannier, publié le 22/01/2016

Une sitographie sur la Campagne de Gallipoli pendant la Première Guerre mondiale.

Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 - Online Resources par Fabien Jeannier, publié le 19/01/2016

Une sitographie sur les Jeux du Commonwealth de Glasgow.

Du « style national » à l’ambition universaliste : la politique étrangère des Etats-Unis selon le Gulliver Empêtré de Stanley Hoffmann - Compte-rendu de lecture par Tamara Boussac, publié le 14/01/2016

En 1968, l’universitaire franco-américain Stanley Hoffmann publiait un ouvrage fondamental dans l’analyse de la politique étrangère américaine au 20ème siècle. Ecrit à l’une des heures les plus critiques de la Guerre Froide, Gulliver Empêtré est à bien des égards le produit de son époque. Les Etats-Unis, dont l’armée s’enlisait au Vietnam dans une guerre impopulaire et inconstitutionnelle, voyaient s’achever l’administration du libéral Lyndon Johnson sur fond de poussée électorale d’un parti républicain promettant de garantir la victoire du monde libre sur le soviétisme. Les dirigeants américains se rangeaient volontiers derrière un discours de puissance structuré par la confrontation idéologique des Etats-Unis avec le bloc soviétique.

Fabio Parasecoli - Food, migrants, and the making of traditions par Fabio Parasecoli, publié le 30/11/2015

Fabio Parasecoli is a professor and director of food studies projects at the New School of New York. He chose to study societies and political systems through food, which, according to him, transmits traditions, and a perspective on the rest of the world. "Food is more than just physical sustenance: it produces meaning and sense, creating infinite culinary cultures where every ingredient, each dish, and meal structures are connected."

Krishnendu Ray: Taste, Toil and Ethnicity par Krishnendu Ray, publié le 30/11/2015

En partenariat avec les départements de Food Studies de la New School et de New York University, le Festival Mode d'Emploi 2015 propose une réflexion sur les migrations du goût. Diplômé de sciences politiques et de sociologie, Krishnendu Ray est professeur de Food Studies et à la tête du Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health à l’Université de New York. À travers ses différents ouvrages, il s’intéresse à la façon dont les immigrés combinent leur culture alimentaire à leur nouveau mode de vie.

Littérature et perspectives civilisationnelles par Floriane Bozon, publié le 15/06/2015

« It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature », écrit Henry James, et le sujet qui nous intéresse aujourd'hui est celui de la corrélation entre littérature et civilisation en cours de Langue vivante, à savoir l'appréhension de la civilisation dans des cours à problématiques littéraires, tout comme l'exploitation possible de la littérature dans des cours à problématiques civilisationnelles. Qu'il s'agisse de choses écrites, ou de savoir issu de la chose écrite, ou encore de l'esthétique d'un texte écrit, lorsqu'il est question de langue étrangère, il est pour beaucoup d'entre nous difficile de dissocier la littérature du monde anglophone en général et donc de sa civilisation.

Meritocracy (David Samuels) par David Samuels, publié le 11/06/2015

“Meritocracy” is the comic honorific that the American elite has awarded to itself in recognition of its accomplishments since the end of the Cold War. The coinage has proved to be a lasting and significant one because it does so many kinds of necessary work at once. “Meritocracy” assuages the inherent tension that exists between the terms “elite” and “popular democracy” by suggesting that the new American elite has earned its position in an entirely democratic way. Yes, we do have an elite, the word admits, as other nations do: but our elite merely consists of the most “meritorious” members of our democracy, and so any potentially troubling contradiction dissolves in a pleasurable way that both the early Puritans and their plutocratic descendents might easily recognize. The fortunes of the founders of Google and Facebook provide us with reassuring proof that the more we have, the more deserving we are.

Teaching Humanities par Gayatri Spivak, publié le 06/05/2015

Fifty years of institutional teaching has brought me this lesson: try to learn to learn how to teach this group, for me the two ends of the spectrum: Columbia University in the City of New York and six elementary schools on the border between West Bengal and Jharkhand. Everything I say will be marked by this. I take my motto from Kafka: “Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: Impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.”

Ireland’s political life during the Famine: Election, constitutionalism and revolution par Anne-Catherine de Bouvier, publié le 07/03/2015

This article aims at exploring the available means of political response in Ireland to the issue of the Famine. What comes first to mind is the case of the representative function, democratic, or approximately so, by the standards of the day; i. e., parliamentary activity. Compiling the records of all individual Irish MPs in Parliament over the period is a tempting intellectual task but clearly beyond the scope of this paper; instead, I approach electoral activity during the period, since elections provide the opportunity of assessment of past contributions, and of confrontation. In the specific context of the Famine, theoretically at least, Irish MPs at Westminster were instrumental in bringing about a better knowledge of what was going on – and indeed some did so in quite a sustained, articulate, and often humane manner. Conversely, elections are moments in a country’s life when voters can take their representatives to account; and clearly, there was much to account for.

Roosevelt’s Political Discourse: Grounded in a Liberal Protestant Worldview par Andrew Ives, publié le 05/03/2015

This paper will argue that Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s political discourse was profoundly influenced by his liberal Protestant worldview. The paper begins with some background on Roosevelt’s Christian upbringing. It moves on to show how FDR consistently used Protestant precepts and Biblical allusions as a rhetorical tool to gain electoral support. However, the author argues that Roosevelt’s simple yet profound Christian faith went far beyond this purely rhetorical usage and that liberal Protestant teachings in fact structured his political philosophy.

Asenath Nicholson and the Great Famine par Maureen Murphy, publié le 02/03/2015

Parts of this article were presented at the Agrégation/Research conference at the University of Caen, 23rd January, 2015. An earlier version appeared in Maryann Gialanella Valiulis and Mary O’Dowd (eds), Women and Irish history: essays in honour of Margaret MacCurtain (Dublin, 1997), pp. 109-124.

The Myth of Concordia par Nadia Urbinati, publié le 23/02/2015

The place of God in the constitution has been one of the most sensitive issues in the debate on the constitutional treaty of the European Union, and has influenced the process of ratification. In the five decades since the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957, European leaders have tried to build a united Europe on a secular foundation of treaties and economic regulations. These no longer seem to be adequate to the task. Lately, efforts have been made to include another factor – religion...

Le christianisme comme « religion de la sortie de la religion » : modernité et sécularisation à l’époque victorienne par Jean-Michel Yvard, publié le 26/01/2015

En 1985, l’intellectuel français Marcel Gauchet publiait un ouvrage intitulé Le Désenchantement du Monde. Renouant délibérément, par delà presque un siècle de négligence, avec des perspectives inaugurées par Max Weber en matière de sociologie des religions, l’auteur y décrivait le christianisme comme ayant constitué éminemment « la religion de la sortie de la religion », voyant en lui cette forme particulière de croyance dont la dynamique interne et les potentialités de développement avaient permis une « sortie » de plus en plus marquée du régime inaugural et fondateur de l’hétéronomie radicale. On s’efforcera de montrer que ce sont les perspectives développées initialement par Marcel Gauchet qui restent les plus prometteuses aujourd’hui, non seulement afin de comprendre les origines de l’Etat mais aussi afin d’envisager une redéfinition de la notion sécularisation dans la perspective de ce que l’on pourrait appeler une « dialectique de la préservation et du dépassement ».

Philosophy, Religion and Toleration par Sudipta Kaviraj, publié le 22/01/2015

Religious faith connects strongly held ethical ideals to the belief that these are the commands of God, or a power above human reason. This can make people of hard religious belief to be intensely intolerant. How can we easily accept those who violate or dismiss principles that we consider the foundational to the moral order of the universe? Thus it is quite possible that religious people might be pious inside their own religion, but hateful towards others. Though most religious faiths set down often similar principles of moral conduct, and encourage adherents to live by principles of fellowship, kindness, and love, these injunctions often get circumscribed by the larger idea of their religion being the only ‘true’ religion...

End of Story par Avital Ronell, publié le 19/01/2015

"For my part, I practice affirmative dissociation. Prompted mostly by a Nietzschean will to fiction and love of masks, I “fake it ‘til I make it,” assuming shrewd yet fragile identities, rotating signatures, reappropriating for myself syntactical maneuvers and rhetorical feints."

Analysing press images par Clifford Armion, publié le 13/01/2015

Newspapers and press websites NEED to illustrate their pages with a variety of images. Illustration, along with headlines, is what draws the attention of the reader/buyer/visitor. When looking at a press image, one has to wonder why that particular picture has been chosen and how it contributes to the news. Here are a few examples showing how those images function.

Secularity in Indian History par Sudipta Kaviraj, publié le 12/01/2015

A peculiar feature of the modern world is the asymmetry in the knowledge of the other between the West and the non-West. Nonwestern societies know a great deal more about Western history than Western societies know about theirs. Religious principles clearly possess a peculiar quality: because they are held with particular reverence by religious individuals who see them as principles created, or at least sanctioned by God rather than men. Their denial by others consequently can cause unusually intense offense. Not observing a principle of a particular religion is considered by strict adherents of that religion as sacrilege. This is why conflict of religious principles gives rise to conflict of particular intensity and severity: it can also give rise to spectacular cruelty, because the object of one’s attack are entirely dehumanized, and considered enemies not of man or king or nation but of God himself.

Pluralism and Tolerance: Philosophers, Mystics and Religions par Souleymane Bachir Diagne, publié le 12/01/2015

The belief in certain supernatural realities is an essential dimension of faith. And, by definition, they are that because we do not comprehend them in the same way as we comprehend objects and beings which we are capable of experiencing with our senses or those mathematic idealities that we understand. Faith therefore allows us to perceive the realities of God, His attributes, His angels and other entities and qualities of the same kind. It equally convinces us that, as human beings, we have the capacity for reaching these truths of a different kind than those of our senses or of our reason in the conventional sense within ourselves, and therefore posses an aptitude for the supernatural or the absolutely comprehensible.

Outline for a Discussion on Toleration par Karen Barkey, publié le 09/01/2015

"There are a few ways of thinking about toleration: I define toleration as more or less absence of persecution; the acceptance of a plurality of religions, but not necessarily their acceptance into society as full and welcomed members/communities. Toleration can mean the acceptance of “difference” and a lack of interest beyond the instrumentality to maintain a coherent polity."

The Politics of Fear par Corey Robin, publié le 19/12/2014

In my 2004 book Fear: The History of a Political Idea, I argued that “one day, the war on terrorism will come to an end. All wars do. And when it does, we will find ourselves still living in fear: not of terrorism or radical Islam, but of the domestic rulers that fear has left behind.” When I wrote “one day,” I was thinking decades, not years. I figured that the war on terror—less the invasions, wars, torture, drone attacks, and assassinations than the broader atmosphere of pervasive and militarized dread, what Hobbes called “a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known” and an enemy is perceived as permanent and irrepressible—would continue at least into the 2010s, if not the '20s. Yet even before Osama bin Laden was killed and negotiations with the Taliban had begun, it was clear that the war on terror, understood in those terms, had come to an end.

L’Afrique du Sud sous les projecteurs du cinéma par Annael Le Poullennec, publié le 19/11/2014

Vous trouverez sur cette page les textes et images réunis à l’occasion de l’Exposition Afrique du Sud, réalisée par la bibliothèque de l’Université d’Evry dans le cadre du colloque SCRIPT. Annael Le Poullennec évoque ici les grandes étapes et les grands films qui jalonnent l’histoire du cinéma sud-africain.

Mémoires sud-africaines ; une courte histoire de l'Afrique du Sud par Grégory Gauthier, publié le 18/11/2014

Vous trouverez sur cette page les textes et images réunis à l’occasion de l’Exposition Afrique du Sud, réalisée par la bibliothèque de l’Université d’Evry dans le cadre du colloque SCRIPT. Grégory Gauthier évoque ici les grandes dates et les grandes figures de l’Afrique du Sud, dressant une chronologie synthétique et illustrée de la Nation arc-en-ciel.

Scotland’s No par Alistair Cole, publié le 29/09/2014

Shortly before the Scottish referendum on independence, I visited the impressive city of Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city. Though the Scottish referendum eventually produced a No of over 55%, the once second largest city in the Empire was one of only four districts to vote Yes (just over 53%). I had correctly judged the atmosphere in this city, but elsewhere the story was rather different. In 28 of the remaining 32 districts, the No vote carried the day, including in SNP stronghold areas such as Angus and Perthshire...

David Treuer: Forgotten World / Forgotten Words par David Treuer, publié le 18/09/2014

We speak confidently and playfully about the “death of the author” but not one wants to seriously consider the death of literature. But this is precisely what we risk when we treat literature as ethnography, or worse, as the last living remnants of what seem to be vanishing cultures. We don’t read novels, at any rate, to educate ourselves. Or if we do we shouldn’t. And if we do commit this soul error we don’t enjoy novels because of the information they contain. Rather, we enjoy them, we clutch novels to our very souls because they move us, surprise us, transport us, entertain us, shock us, and (ultimately) trick us into caring about people and places that don’t exist and never existed.

Nikolai Grozni: The Whispers of Music Lost par Nikolai Grozni, publié le 10/09/2014

“Only the words break the silence, all other sounds have ceased,” writes Beckett in his Texts for Nothing. Or does he sing it? If words were the only sounds, then a sentence would be the only melody. We might never understand which came first—the words or the melody. Perhaps the first humans knew how to sing long before they knew how to talk. In this Dionysian vision of antiquity, all mortals were originally musicians. Music was the only thing that mattered. People understood each other by inventing mimetic melodies and singing together in tune. They appeared, loved, suffered, worshipped the gods and died like opera singers on stage.

Kirsty Gunn: Sound and Writing par Kirsty Gunn, publié le 08/09/2014

That sound you hear, as though coming off the lonely Scottish hills, through the fine Highland air, passing across straths and glens, along rivers and to the sea... Is the sound of the piobaireachd, the classical music of the great Highland bagpipe, a music made for Gatherings, Salutes and Laments, a grand and grave and complicated music - Ceol Mor it is in Gaelic - The Big Music. The Big Music, too, is the title of my latest work of fiction - not a novel, but an elegy, as Virginia Woolf described all her work - a story that sounds as much as it says... An experience of words, of a story of people and a landscape, of a love story played across generations, that nevertheless sounds in the mind...

Lorna Goodison: a short story par Lorna Goodison, publié le 05/09/2014

Dans le cadre de notre partenariat avec la Villa Gillet, nous avons le plaisir de publier cette délicieuse historiette de Lorna Goodison sur les rapports conjugaux…

Rachel Cusk: Love narratives par Rachel Cusk, publié le 28/08/2014

If it’s true that we use narrative as a frame to make sense of the randomness of our human experience, then the story of romantic love might be seen as reflecting our profoundest anxieties about who and what we are, about what happens to us and why. The love narrative is ostensibly a story of progress, yet its true goal is to achieve an ending, a place of finality where nothing further needs to happen and the tension between fantasy and reality can cease. At the wedding of man and woman a veil is drawn, an ending arrived at: the reader closes the book, for marriage as it is lived represents the re-assertion of reality over narrative. Having committed this public act of participation and belief in the notion of life as a story, man and woman are left to order and confer meaning on their private experiences as best they can...

Story (Zoyâ Pirzâd) par Zoya Pirzad, publié le 04/04/2014

Chaque année, les invités des Assises Internationales du Roman rédigent la définition d'un mot de leur choix : il s'agit ici du mot "story", défini par l'auteure iranienne Zoyâ Pirzâd.

What's a hero? par Susan Neiman, publié le 01/04/2014

When talking about heroes I’ve often been asked if I could please drop the problematic term ‘hero’ in favor of the term ‘role model’. I cannot, since the word role model is part of the problem: a sterile term that social scientists invented in 1957, which simply doesn’t work the way the word heroes does: to inspire, to challenge, to light fires for (and under) people of whatever age who need to be reminded that there is more to their lives than they are told to be resigned to. When attempting to use the word hero in a BBC discussion I was attacked by an interlocutor who justified her refusal to use the old-fashioned word ‘hero’ because “Hitler and Stalin were heroes.”

Finding the Way par Gunnar Olsson, publié le 17/03/2014

Gunnar Olsson explore l'influence du vocabulaire et des méthodes des géographes sur la pensée, la création littéraire, la religion et les arts. How do I find my way in the power-filled world of hopes and fears, truths and lies, love and hate, freedom and repression? By approaching it as if it was made of sticks and stones, mountains and rivers, as if it could be captured in a coordinate net of up and down, front and back, left and right..

The Truth of Pussy Riot par Masha Gessen, publié le 21/02/2014

A great work of art is also often not immediately recognizable. Five young women entered the enormous Cathedral of Christ the Savior early in the morning on February 21, 2012, took off their overcoats to expose differently colored dresses and neon-colored tights, pulled on similarly neon-colored balaclavas, climbed up on the soleas (having lost one of their number in the process—she had been grabbed by a security guard), and proceeded to dance, play air guitar, and sing a song they called a “punk prayer,” beseeching Mother of God to “get rid of Putin.”

Anthropology and Philosophy or the Problem of Ontological Symmetry par Tim Ingold, publié le 11/02/2014

"Anthropology, for me, is philosophy with the people in. It is philosophy, because its concern is with the conditions and possibilities of human being and knowing in the one world we all inhabit."

Scotland’s Hour of Choice: The 2014 Referendum Campaign par Alistair Cole, publié le 09/02/2014

With the Scottish independence referendum campaign in full swing, it is difficult to stand back and evaluate the position of Scotland in a dispassionate way. Scottish citizens will shortly be called upon to decide whether they agree or not with the proposition that ‘Scotland should be an Independent country’.

In Support of Affirmative Action par Randall Kennedy, publié le 06/02/2014

There are several good justifications for racial affirmative action in a society that has long been a pigmentocracy in which white people have been privileged and people of color oppressed. Affirmative action can ameliorate debilitating scars left by past racial mistreatment – scars (such as educational deprivation) that handicap racial minorities as they seek to compete with whites who have been free of racial subordination. Affirmative action can also counter racially prejudiced misconduct. True, an array of laws supposedly protect people in America from racial mistreatment. But these laws are notoriously under-enforced...

Pictures Versus the World par Barbie Zelizer, publié le 24/01/2014

For as long as pictures have been among us, they have generated an uneasy mix of suspicion and awe. Perhaps nowhere is that as much the case as with journalism, where pictures are implicated in the larger truth-claims associated with the news. Aligned with a certain version of modernity, pictures are expected to establish and maintain journalism as the legitimate platform for giving shape to events of the real world. Consider how public response to acts of terror, war and natural disaster is affected by decisions not to depict them. Without pictures to show the news, journalism’s capacity to render the real and make it accessible is compromised.

Minorities and democracy par Siddhartha Deb, publié le 17/01/2014

In 1916, the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore delivered a series of lectures that would eventually be collected into the book, Nationalism. Tagore was writing in the glow of his own celebrity (he had just won the Nobel Prize for literature) and from within the heart of the crisis engulfing the modern world, two years into the slow, grim war that had converted Europe into a labyrinth of trenches covered over with clouds of poison gas. For Tagore, this was the tragic but inevitable outcome of a social calculus that valued efficiency, profit and, especially, the spirit of us versus them that bonded together the inhabitants of one nation and allowed them to go out, conquer and enslave other people, most of them members of no nation at all.

Feel the Sound, Thoughts on Music and the Body par Elena Mannes, publié le 19/12/2013

Our relationship with sound is an intimate one – arguably the most intimate with any of our five senses. We live in a visual society. Many people would say that sight is our primary sense. We hear before we see. In the womb, the fetus begins to develop an auditory system between seventeen and nineteen weeks. Already we are in a world of sound, of breath and heartbeat, of rhythm and vibration. Already, we are feeling the sound with our bodies.

Family Histories par Ian Buruma, publié le 16/12/2013

When I was at primary school in the Netherlands in the late 1950s and early 1960s, history was still taught as a story of great men, kings, generals, national heroes, and of course great villains, mostly foreigners. In our case, this meant a succession of Williams of Orange, Admiral Tromp, Philip II, the Duke of Alva, Napoleon, Hitler, and so on. As a reaction to this kind of thing, historians of the left began to focus on systems: fascist, late capitalist, communist, totalitarian. Hannah Arendt’s take on the Eichmann trial, though not the work of a typical leftist, contributed to this tendency, as did the work of Adorno. I have often suspected that they favored systemic analyses, because they couldn’t bring themselves to face what had gone so badly wrong specifically in their beloved Germany. The responsibility of Germans, such as Heidegger, was not the issue; it had to be a systemic failure.

Taking History Personnally par Cynthia Carr, publié le 12/12/2013

Two black men were lynched in Marion, Indiana, on the night of August 7, 1930. That was my father’s hometown, the town where I have my roots, and I heard this story when I was a little girl: The night it happened someone called my grandfather, whose shift at the Post Office began at three in the morning. "Don’t walk through the courthouse square tonight on your way to work," the caller said. "You might see something you don’t want to see." Apparently that was the punchline, which puzzled me. Something you don’t want to see. Then laughter. I was in my late twenties — my grandfather long dead — when I first came upon the photo of this lynching in a book. It has become an iconic image of racial injustice in America: two black men in bloody tattered clothing hang from a tree and below them stand the grinning, gloating, proud and pleased white folks.

Are You Going to Write That in Your Book? par Siddhartha Deb, publié le 03/12/2013

Born in north-eastern India in 1970, Siddhartha Deb is the recipient of grants from the Society of Authors in the UK and has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard University. His latest book, a work of narrative nonfiction, ((The Beautiful and the Damned)), was a finalist for the Orwell Prize in the UK and the winner of the PEN Open award in the United States. His journalism, essays, and reviews have appeared in Harpers, The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, Bookforum, The Daily Telegraph, The Nation, n+1, and The Times Literary Supplement.

In Praise of Babel par Robyn Creswell, publié le 22/11/2013

Like Jewish and Christian commentators, Muslim exegetes understood the Babel story to be a parable of how mankind’s hubris, in the form of a desire for knowledge or an attempt to reach the heavens, leads to divine punishment. The subsequent confusion of human idioms and scattering of peoples is a second fall from grace, an expulsion from the paradise of monolingualism. Henceforth, translation becomes at once necessary and impossible—impossible in the sense that no translation could ever match the transparency of the original Ur-Sprache. So the Islamic tradition, like the Judaic one in particular, comes to bear a tremendous nostalgia for the lost language of Eden.

What Is Translation For? par Keith Gessen, publié le 19/11/2013

What is the place of the writer in the literary field of the home country? What contribution can this writer make to the literary field of the target or host country? It's important to understand that the answers to these questions will often be different: a writer can be a marginal figure in his home country and become a vital figure in another country. More often, of course, the reverse is true.

Translation as Muse: Muse as Teacher par Mary Jo Bang, publié le 15/11/2013

how can reading not add to one’s experience, and in turn influence a person’s writing? And wouldn’t translation especially affect the brain, since translation involves the closest sort of reading, one where the mind simultaneously reads for meaning and tries to access the equivalent word or expression in another language. Wouldn’t reading the word “pelle” in Italian similarly send a message to the brain to access the synaptic record of all past sensory experience having to do with leather: black jacket, kid gloves, car seat, red belt with an alligator buckle, toy-gun holster, shoe shop. Wouldn’t the experiential knowledge of how those various leathers felt be carried along as the translator toggled between two different linguistic systems? And of course each of those leather memories would be connected to other associational memories, some quite rich in subjectivity.

We’re All Translators Now par Esther Allen, publié le 15/11/2013

As our language ceases to dominate cyberspace (our share of the Web has fallen to about 27%), we English speakers are hesitantly stepping out of our monolingual sphere and evincing renewed interest in foreign tongues. Language learning websites like Livemocha and Matador Network seem to crop up like mushrooms, Rosetta Stone is a publicly traded company whose stock is up 41% year to date, and last year’s top-rated YouTube video — remember? —was in Korean (with a few repetitions of “hey sexy lady” thrown in for nostalgia’s sake).

David Vann: Secret and subtext par David Vann, publié le 07/10/2013

All of the conventions of literary fiction can be successfully broken except one: there must be subtext, a second story beneath the surface. We don’t have to care about a protagonist or even really have a protagonist. We’re not limited to any particular style or structure. But our entire idea of literature being “about” something is based on a second narrative, something else that the surface narrative can point to. What’s interesting to me about this is that we live in a time when surface narratives are taking over. Blogs are generally so worthless for this one reason, that they lack subtext. The online world is, above all, earnest, saying exactly what it means.

Goldie Goldbloom: Portraits and Faces - Appearance and Disfigurement par Goldie Goldbloom, publié le 27/09/2013

Chekhov is well known for his impartial observations of his characters and for his grasp of “realism”. When I first read his description of the lady with the little dog, I discovered that she is “a fair-haired young lady of medium height, wearing a beret.” I was puzzled. This less than enthusiastic description of the woman Gurov will come to love leaves out many basic details such as the colour of Anna Sergeyevna’s eyes and whether she has an attractive figure. I wondered why Chekhov departs from the wordier earlier traditions of written portraiture, and how his simple sketch of Anna illustrated the “realism” for which he is known.

Kate O'Riordan: Visions of Ireland - A writer's view par Kate O'Riordan, publié le 17/09/2013

A Londoner by adoption, Kate O’Riordan grew up in the small city of Bantry on the west coast of Ireland. With Le Garçon dans la lune, published in 2008 and Pierres de mémoire, in 2009, O’Riordan signed two new remarkable opuses in which she questions family relationships. A novelist and short-story writer, Kate O’Riordan also writes for the cinema and continues to confirm her legitimate place among Irish authors who count. She came to the Villa Gillet to take part in a discussion on 'Ireland by Irish writers'.

Les tubes de la Grande Guerre en Angleterre par John Mullen, publié le 27/08/2013

La vie des Britanniques il y a un siècle était souvent très dure. Comme à toute époque, le divertissement, et spécialement la musique, était essentiel pour toutes les classes sociales. Les couches privilégiées organisaient des concerts chez elles, aidées par leurs domestiques, ou allaient dans les salons de danse. La classe ouvrière rejoignait des fanfares ou des chorales, mais surtout allait au music-hall. Dans cet article nous avons choisi 10 chansons à succès des années de guerre qui peuvent illustrer les priorités de leur public. Pour chacune, nous fournissons un extrait des paroles, un enregistrement de l’époque, et une image.

Victorian printing and William Morris’s Kelmscott Press par Laura Mingam, publié le 09/05/2013

During the Victorian period, the Industrial Revolution reached the field of printing, and profoundly altered book production in England. Even though technical innovations led to the creation of dazzling volumes, the artist designer William Morris denounced the corruption of traditional printing methods. As a reaction against the standards of his time, William Morris decided to open his own printing press, with the aim of “producing [books] which would have a definite claim to beauty”. The Kelmscott Press was to become a new landmark in the history of English printing.

Aux origines de Twelve Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013) : le récit d’esclave de Solomon Northup par Michaël Roy, publié le 20/03/2013

Aux origines du film de Steve McQueen, Twelve Years a Slave (2013), il y a le récit de l’esclave américain Solomon Northup (1853). Cet article présente d’abord le récit d’esclave et situe cette forme littéraire dans le paysage idéologique de l’Amérique d’avant la guerre de Sécession ; il détaille ensuite l’histoire éditoriale de Twelve Years a Slave ; il donne enfin quelques repères dans l’œuvre et évoque son devenir critique.

Care: A New Way of Questioning our Societies par Joan Tronto, publié le 15/03/2013

"In the United States, care became a focus of feminist research in the early 1980s. As “second wave” feminists realized that mere formal equality was insufficient, they began to think more deeply about what was required for the genuine inclusion of women."

A global open-circuit television system going live? par Jeffrey Rosen, publié le 11/03/2013

I was at a conference at Google not long ago, and the head of public policy, said he expected that before long, Google and Facebook will be asked to post online live feeds to all the public and private surveillance cameras in the world, including mobile cameras mounted on drones. Imagine that Facebook responds to public pressure and decides to post live feeds, so they can be searched online, as well as archiving the video in the digital cloud.

After Obamacare: The New Stakes of US Healthcare Policy par Alondra Nelson, publié le 21/02/2013

The new stakes for healthcare policy in the U.S. are apparent in what Obamacare concretized — the further privatization and stratification of healthcare—and what it left unsaid—the assertion of a right to health. Solutions lie outside of the formal domain of policy and in the realm of ethics and human rights. Yet, it is hard to imagine the application of these remedies at a time when life can be taken with impunity and in a world in which the US kills through drone warfare with each bomb carrying not only the threat of death but also the message that some lives matter less than yours or mine.

Going Solo par Eric Klinenberg, publié le 19/02/2013

About five years ago I started working on a book that I planned to call ALONE IN AMERICA. My original idea was to write a book that would sound an alarm about a disturbing trend: the unprecedented rise of living alone. I was motivated by my belief that the rise of living alone is a profound social change – the greatest change of the past 60 years that we have failed to name or identify. Consider that, until the 1950s, not a single human society in the history of our species sustained large numbers of people living alone for long periods of time. Today, however, living alone is ubiquitous in affluent, open societies. In some nations, one-person households are now more common than nuclear families who share the same roof. Consider America. In 1950, only 22 percent of American adults were single, and only 9 percent of all households had just one occupant. Today, 49 percent of American adults are single, and 28 percent of all households have one, solitary resident.

Can Religion Make you Free? A Sermon on Diabolical Happiness par Simon Critchley, publié le 15/02/2013

"What is it that makes human beings happy? In a word, bread. And here we return to Jesus’ answers to the Devil’s desert temptations. In refusing to transform miraculously the stones into loaves, Jesus rejected bread for the sake of freedom, for the bread of heaven."

Neoliberalism, De-Democratization, Sacrifice par Wendy Brown, publié le 11/02/2013

Neoliberalism, of course, is not unified or constant but differs across its geographical instantiations and transmogrifies over time. In the Euro Atlantic world today, two different and quite contingent forces are giving neoliberalism a new shape: on the one hand, financialization is configuring states, firms, associations and subjects in terms of capital valuation or credit worthiness (as opposed to productivity, efficiency, cost-benefit or interest maximization), and on the other hand, austerity regimes are effecting enormous shrinkages in human well being through cuts in jobs, pay, benefits and services.

The Political Future of Religion and Secularism par Craig Calhoun, publié le 08/02/2013

Secularism has long been seen as a solution to problems of religion. Yet today, secularism (laïcité) itself is a political problem alongside religion. In some versions, secularism has become an obstacle to political and social projects potentially shared among members of different religions and the non-religious. It has been politicized in relation to migration, insurgency, and religious renewal. As ideology, it is sometimes the basis for new forms of intolerance. Both secularism and religion are sometimes made the bases for prescriptive demands on others as well as self-understandings. A central issue is the transformation of secularism and laïcité – in some versions – from formulations focused on freedom to ideologies mobilized to impose cultural values. Yet this need not be so. The problems are not with religion and secularism as such, but with how “fundamentalist” versions of each are deployed.