Pina Bausch, Mary Wigman, and the Aesthetic of “Being Moved”

Author(s):  
Sabine Huschka

This chapter rethinks the relationship between Mary Wigman and Pina Bausch from a viewpoint informed by recent philosophical approaches to dance history. Dance research often draws a genealogy that connects Wigman's approach to that of Bausch, the central representative of German Tanztheater as it emerged in the 1970s. However, it is argued Bausch took a fundamentally different position compared to the one propagated by her predecessor: turning her attention away from absolute truth and toward the truthfulness of any given physical movement on stage, while retaining the appeal to feeling, she sought to develop emotionally determined forms of movement and to create a shared space of human experience beyond any essentialism. But what about the choreographed body in these theatrical spaces of experience? How do movements and gestures function to reveal a perspective on the human being? Which choreographic or theatrical means are used, at the discretion of the individual body, to produce an impression of unmediated immediacy? The radical difference between Wigman and Bausch can be detected in their aesthetics of representation, in the way in which they choreograph emotion.

Elenchos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-194
Author(s):  
Angela Longo

AbstractThe following work features elements to ponder and an in-depth explanation taken on the Anca Vasiliu’s study about the possibilities and ways of thinking of God by a rational entity, such as the human being. This is an ever relevant topic that, however, takes place in relation to Platonic authors and texts, especially in Late Antiquity. The common thread is that the human being is a God’s creature who resembles him and who is image of. Nevertheless, this also applies within the Christian Trinity according to which, not without problems, the Son is the image of the Father. Lastly, also the relationship of the Spirit with the Father and the Son, always within the Trinity, can be considered as a relationship of similarity, but again not without critical issues between the similarity of attributes, on the one hand, and the identity of nature, on the other.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-56
Author(s):  
Christian Schmitt

Abstract The discrepancy between common temporary expectations of Switzerland as idyll on the one hand, and the reality of its industrially organized tourism on the other, imposes irritations upon the touristic gaze. This article, then, traces the origins of this discrepancy and examines the relationship between Swiss idyll and tourism in the 19th century. The analyses of Ida Hahn-Hahn’s Eine Idylle and Hans Christian Andersen’s Iisjomfruen showcase different ways of relating idyll and tourism to one another as well as the aesthetic merit produced by this constellation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-141
Author(s):  
Osama Sami AL-Nsour

The concept of citizenship is one of the pillars upon which the modern civil state was built. The concept of citizenship can be considered as the basic guarantee for both the government and individuals to clarify the relationship between them, since under this right individuals can acquire and apply their rights freely and also based on this right the state can regulate how society members perform the duties imposed on them, which will contributes to the development of the state and society .The term citizenship has been used in a wider perspective, itimplies the nationality of the State where the citizen obtains his civil, political, economic, social, cultural and religious rights and is free to exercise these rights in accordance with the Constitution of the State and the laws governing thereof and without prejudice to the interest. In return, he has an obligation to perform duties vis-à-vis the state so that the state can give him his rights that have been agreed and contracted.This paper seeks to explore firstly, the modern connotation of citizenship where it is based on the idea of rights and duties. Thus the modern ideal of citizenship is based on the relationship between the individual and the state. The Islamic civilization was spanned over fourteen centuries and there were certain laws and regulations governing the relationship between the citizens and the state, this research will try to discover the main differences between the classical concept of citizenship and the modern one, also this research will show us the results of this change in this concept . The research concludes that the new concept of citizenship is correct one and the one that can fit to our contemporary life and the past concept was appropriate for their time but the changes in the world force us to apply and to rethink again about this concept.


Politeia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 238-260
Author(s):  
Franco Manni ◽  

From the ideas of Aristotle, De Saussure and Wittgenstein, philosopher Herbert McCabe elaborated an original anthropology. 'Meaning' means: the role played by a part towards the whole. Senses are bodily organs and sensations allow an animal to get fragments of the external world which become 'meaningful' for the behaviour of the whole animal Besides sensations, humans are ‘linguistic animals’ because through words they are able to 'communicate', that is, to share a peculiar kind of meanings: concepts. Whereas, sense-images are stored physically in our brain and cannot be shared, even though we can relate to sense-images by words (speech coincides with thought). However, concepts do not belong to the individual human being qua individual, but to an interpersonal entity: the language system. Therefore, on the one hand, to store images is a sense-power and an operation of the brain, whereas the brain (quite paradoxically!) is not in itself the organ of thought. On the other hand, concepts do not exist on their own.


Leonardo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-91
Author(s):  
Seth Riskin

The author discusses the origin and meaning of his Light Dance artwork. The simple approach—placing a source of light on the body and thereby manipulating the illumination of the surrounding space through body movements—alters the viewer’s perception of space and time. Architecture appears malleable as the performer affects the size, shape and speed of light forms that reach from the body to the boundaries of the room. Light, in this perceptual environment, is not a mere transmitter of information between the invariant material surroundings and the eye of the viewer; light is a space-defining extension of the performer’s body that transposes movement expression from the individual body to the shared space. An inversion of subjective and objective “spaces” is realized in the experience of Light Dance wherein the prevailing conceptual hierarchy of light and vision is overcome.


Author(s):  
David Gillis

This introductory chapter provides a background of Maimonides and his code of Jewish law, the Mishneh torah. Maimonides applied the highest literary art to the highest of tasks: to bequeath, as philosopher-statesman, a law that would regulate the life of the individual and of society and move people closer to the knowledge of God. The result of that art is a book to be read and experienced, not just consulted. The central feature of Mishneh torah as a work of art is the casting of the commandments of the law in the form of the cosmos. The microcosmic form suggests, in the first place, that studying Mishneh torah, like the study of the universe, can be a way to the knowledge and love of God. On the plane of ideas, this form embodies the relationship between the ‘small thing’ and the ‘great thing’, between halakhah, on the one hand, and physics and metaphysics on the other. It depicts philosophy as the matrix of halakhah, reflecting the view of the relationship between philosophy and religion in the Islamic philosophers.


Author(s):  
Daniel J. Hemel

This chapter suggests a human rights–based justification for national basic income schemes, contrasting it with justifications based on welfarist principles or notions of entitlement to a share of the global commons. Starting from the premise that a state is a collective enterprise that generates a surplus, it contends that any human being who is an “obedient” member of that state has a right to some share of the surplus. That right—which arises from the relationship between the individual and the state, and is independent of need—could justify the entitlement to a basic income. Such income should be provided in cash, not in kind, because the latter risks depriving the individual of the enjoyment of his share of the surplus—in effect, forcing him to forfeit or transfer it to others if he does not use the public goods or services provided by the state.


Author(s):  
María Rosa Palazón

There are no a-moral texts, even though amorality may be described by them: an amoral author would not dare into the search of beauty; it depends on a game of faculties that, also, play with the form. A moralizing literary text is not due to a game of author's faculties, but only to the author's conscience. Thus, it rebounds heavy and ugly. An ugly immoral literary text assaults on a redundant and calculated way some moral rules in favor of the "forbidden". Then, it is not a beautiful text. The aesthetic function is the one treating the stimulus as a purpose and not only as a means. This spontaneous behavior is condition of possibility for the moral act (the follower of the second kantian imperative). The one who spontaneously has the attitude that considers the other (alter) as a purpose and not only as a means, is a beautiful person. Its argued that it is not yet a morally good person. Anyway, "beau-ty" on its Latin etymologies (beau-t‚ and bello) means good, which involves a project that is dialoguing, truthful, respectful and advantageous for the community. It also means that the decision of using the proper means for the goal, has been taken. Once accepted the project, the individual shall act spontaneously on a ludicrous way so that the project may become real. He will be a more meritorious beautiful person if his spontaneous goodness means the overcoming over the experiences that have hurt hi. The matter is: is the moral beauty the highest point of morality? I will work on this topic on the basis of Schiller, Kant, Gadamer, and Sartre.


Author(s):  
Margaret A. Simons

This introductory chapter presents the literary writings of Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86), the renowned French existentialist author of The Second Sex. Such insight into her own thought is often provided by Beauvoir's prefaces to works by other authors. For instance, Beauvoir's 1964 “Preface” to La Bâtarde has been described as more reflective of her philosophy than of author Violet Leduc's life. Beauvoir's confrontation with her critics is another source of drama in this study. A criticism that spans the decades of these texts is the charge that an existential novel, with its focus on action and philosophical questions, forsakes the aesthetic function of literature. Yet, for Beauvoir, the true mission of the writer is to describe in dramatic form the relationship of the individual to the world in which he stakes his freedom.


2020 ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
Е.В. Яковлева ◽  
Н.В. Исакова

Рассмотрена культурная определенность творческой деятельности в аспекте отношения между творчеством как созданием чего-то принципиально нового и воспроизводством культуры, основанным на экспликации заложенных в нее смыслов. Материалами послужили результаты исследований философов и культурологов, изучавших проблемы социокультурной обусловленности творчества. Проводится аналитическое рассмотрение основных концепций, связанных с трактовкой творчества, изучены подходы к определению творческого статуса отдельных продуктов культуры, затронуты проблемы соотношения содержания и формы в творческой деятельности, охарактеризованы современные условия ее осуществления. Выделены варианты творческой деятельности по критерию характера выражаемых смыслов. Сделан вывод, что в настоящее время присутствуют социальные и технологические предпосылки как для множественной проработки уже известных мейнстримовых направлений, так и для формирования уникальных по форме и содержанию смысловых конструкций. The main problem of the study is to identify the relationship between the individual and culturally predetermined aspects of creative activity with the subsequent extension of the findings to the modern sociocultural situation. The sources were materials and research results of philosophers and culturologists studying the problem of the sociocultural conditioning of creativity. The authors proceed from a methodological premise that implies that, in the creative sphere, there are mechanisms for the “elaboration” of individual ideas, similar in their principles to the development of paradigms in the meaning that Thomas Kuhn attached to this term. The authors ask themselves the question of what the status of creativity is in modern research thought and determine the general points that are characteristic of almost all philosophical systems when considering creativity. The contradictions inherent in the problem of the cultural conditioning of creativity are analyzed. On the one hand, creativity is conditioned by the influence of culture and its development; on the other, it is the product of the free activity of an individual. The authors argue that a simple explication of culture is impossible, but one cannot reject the presence of direct objective factors that, to one degree or another, affect the creative process. Trying to determine the degree of conditionality of the creative process, the authors turn to the analysis of musical notation as a universal language of music. The conclusion is made about the limited (albeit calculated in huge numbers) options for expressing sound combinations. At the same time, this limitation acts simultaneously as determinacy, the so-called “field for maneuver”. Abstracting from this observation, the authors argue that the novelty of creative activity is not absolute: when faced with its product, we observe “the unknown in the known”. It is this aspect that determines the connection between creative individuals when they are forming cultural heritage. Four variants of creative activity are distinguished according to the criterion of the nature of the meanings expressed and the means used for this. The authors argue that the degree of variability of creative activity largely depends on how much society considers it permissible to introduce something new into the existing. They conclude that at present there are social and technological prerequisites both for the multiple elaboration of already known, mainstream areas and for the formation of semantic structures that are unique in their form and content.


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