The Prison House of Alienation

The Prison House of Alienation PDF

Author: Murzban Jal

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-05-21

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1000753247

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The Prison House of Alienation is an exploration of the humanist theme of alienation that Marx theorized in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. It relates this theme of alienation with the themes of haunting in the Manifesto of the Communist Party and accumulation of capital that he outlined in his magnum opus Capital. The volume claims that humanity plagued by ghosts is dwelling in a prison house from which there seems no escape. Yet humanity seeks to escape from this prison house. The essays are a consequent journey in dramaturgy where science and art truly meet to create emancipatory politics that goes well beyond the entire discourse of twentieth-century socialism. The volume begins with Hamlet’s lament in Shakespeare’s tragedy, who, struck by alienation, is haunted by the ghost of his dead father. It then discusses how instead of creating a radical theory for creating a socialist alternative, ‘haunting’ gave way to interpretation as an estranged hermeneutical act that displaces revolutionary theory and praxis. This displacement of revolutionary praxis in turn gave way to violence. This volume therefore also analyzes violence from Clausewitz to Mao, revealing that a rigorous line must be drawn between Stalinism and Maoism on one side, and authentic Marxism on the other side. It concludes by questioning the very idea of ideology, suggesting that ideology is not merely a false consciousness, but a terrible psychotic act that would devour the entire emancipatory project of Marxism itself. Placing the human condition at the centre for alternative twenty-first-century politics, The Prison House of Alienation reveals that there can be no science without art and no politics without humanity. It will be of great interest to scholars of philosophy and politics. The essays were originally published in various issues of Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory.

Prophets Without Vision

Prophets Without Vision PDF

Author: Hedda Ben-Bassat

Publisher: Bucknell University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780838754337

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Ben-Bassat (English, Tel Aviv U.) discusses crises of ideology and identity in the fiction of contemporary American authors. She contends that the fiction of John Updike, Flannery O'Connor, Grace Paley, James Baldwin, and Alice Walker has absorbed a diversity of prophetic modes from a diversity of

Graham GreeneA Study Of His Major Novels

Graham GreeneA Study Of His Major Novels PDF

Author: Sunita Sinha

Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Dist

Published: 2007-09

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9788126908769

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One Of Britain S Most Interesting And Complex Contemporary Novelists, Graham Greene Is Eminently Readable And Hugely Topical. A Diverse And Prolific Writer, He Has Also Written Poetry, Children S Books, Film Scripts, Political Reportage And Travel Books. Greene S Novels Have Evoked Lively Interest Not Only In Literary And Academic Circles But Also Gained Popularity With The General Reading Public And Cinema Audience. In An Attempt To Establish Their Individual Points Of View Critics Have Examined Greene As A Catholic Writer, A Political Writer, A Comic Spy Thriller Writer, But Have Tended To Ignore The Central Aspect Of Greene S Fiction His Dominant Concern With Human Predicament Which Forms The Nucleus Of His Entire Vision.Graham Greene: A Study Of His Major Novels Explores The Persistent Strain Of Humanism La Condition Humanitie The Estate Of Man, That Obtains In All His Novels, Whether The Ostensible Theme Is Politics Or Withdrawal From Politics, Religion Or Withdrawal From Religion. The Book Unravels An Inclusive Critical Analysis Of The Most Significant And Controversial Aspects Of Greene S Fiction And Establishes Greene As A Significant Proponent Of A New Trend In Literature, A Trend Which Decidedly Moves In The Direction Of Existentialist Thinking. The Book Establishes Greene As The Ultimate Twentieth Century Chronicler Of Consciousness And Anxiety , Exploring The Doubtfulness Of Modern Man And Ambivalent Normal Or Political Issues In A Contemporary Setting. It Makes Visible The Private Universe Of Greene The Universe Of Pity, Of Sin And Salvation, Of The Cult Of The Sanctified Sinner, The Question Of Commitment And Of The World Of Broken Trust.Graham Greene: A Study Of His Major Novels Remains A Comprehensive Study Of This Most Widely Read 20Th Century Novelist Who Never Fails To Engross Our Complete Attention In Each Successive Novel, Where He Edifies As Well As Entertains. It Will Undoubtedly Prove Valuable To The Students And Researchers Of English Literature.

Alienation and Alterity

Alienation and Alterity PDF

Author: Paul Cooke

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 9783039115471

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Discussions of French 'identity' have frequently emphasised the importance of a highly centralised Republican model inherited from the Revolution. In reality, however, France also has a rich heritage of diversity that has often found expression in contingent sub-cultures marked by marginalisation and otherness - whether social, religious, gendered, sexual, linguistic or ethnic. This range of sub-cultures and variety of ways of thinking the 'other' underlines the fact that 'norms' can only exist by the concomitant existence of difference(s). The essays in this collection, which derive from the conference 'Alienation and Alterity: Otherness in Modern and Contemporary Francophone Contexts', held at the University of Exeter in September 2007, explore various aspects of this diversity in French and Francophone literature, culture, and cinema from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The contributions demonstrate that while alienation (from a cultural 'norm' and also from oneself) can certainly be painful and problematic, it is also a privileged position which allows the 'étranger' to consider the world and his/her relationship to it in an 'other' way.

Prison and Social Death

Prison and Social Death PDF

Author: Joshua M. Price

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2015-07

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 0813565596

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The United States imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. To be sentenced to prison is to face systematic violence, humiliation, and, perhaps worst of all, separation from family and community. It is, to borrow Orlando Patterson’s term for the utter isolation of slavery, to suffer “social death.” In Prison and Social Death, Joshua Price exposes the unexamined cost that prisoners pay while incarcerated and after release, drawing upon hundreds of often harrowing interviews conducted with people in prison, parolees, and their families. Price argues that the prison separates prisoners from desperately needed communities of support from parents, spouses, and children. Moreover, this isolation of people in prison renders them highly vulnerable to other forms of violence, including sexual violence. Price stresses that the violence they face goes beyond physical abuse by prison guards and it involves institutionalized forms of mistreatment, ranging from abysmally poor health care to routine practices that are arguably abusive, such as pat-downs, cavity searches, and the shackling of pregnant women. And social death does not end with prison. The condition is permanent, following people after they are released from prison. Finding housing, employment, receiving social welfare benefits, and regaining voting rights are all hindered by various legal and other hurdles. The mechanisms of social death, Price shows, are also informal and cultural. Ex-prisoners face numerous forms of distrust and are permanently stigmatized by other citizens around them. A compelling blend of solidarity, civil rights activism, and social research, Prison and Social Death offers a unique look at the American prison and the excessive and unnecessary damage it inflicts on prisoners and parolees.

The Most Absolute Abolition

The Most Absolute Abolition PDF

Author: Jesse Olsavsky

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2022-08-17

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0807178365

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Jesse Olsavsky’s The Most Absolute Abolition tells the dramatic story of how vigilance committees organized the Underground Railroad and revolutionized the abolitionist movement. These groups, based primarily in northeastern cities, defended Black neighborhoods from police and slave catchers. As the urban wing of the Underground Railroad, they helped as many as ten thousand refugees, building an elaborate network of like-minded sympathizers across boundaries of nation, gender, race, and class. Olsavsky reveals how the committees cultivated a movement of ideas animated by a motley assortment of agitators and intellectuals, including famous figures such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Henry David Thoreau, who shared critical information with one another. Formerly enslaved runaways—who grasped the economy of slavery, developed their own political imaginations, and communicated strategies of resistance to abolitionists—serve as the book’s central focus. The dialogues between fugitives and abolitionists further radicalized the latter’s tactics and inspired novel forms of feminism, prison reform, and utopian constructs. These notions transformed abolitionism into a revolutionary movement, one at the heart of the crises that culminated in the Civil War.

Women in Exile and Alienation

Women in Exile and Alienation PDF

Author: Kaptan Singh

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2016-06-22

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1443896721

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Since World War II, exile and alienation have become two of the most prominent themes in world literature. Canadian and Indian literatures are no exception. Modern human civilisation is passing through a terrible ordeal following on from the catastrophic consequences of two world wars, and many people have been overwhelmed and overawed by the growth of science, technology and urbanisation. Alienation, a feeling of not belonging, has filled the life of modern man with uncertainties and disappointments, obstructions and frustrations. Indian and Canadian literatures are currently two of the most acclaimed forms of global literature, with major themes including a search for identity, a struggle for survival, and self and social isolation, and it is not surprising that female writers are major voices in both Indian and Canadian literature. There is a heavy imbalance of power between two sexes in both cultures, where men are considered to be domineering and the centre of the family while women are regarded as subordinate to men. Women’s suppression compels them to live in their self-exiled and alienated world. The works of Margaret Laurence and Anita Desai depict heart-rending facts and bitter realities which women have to face in an emotionless modern society. Since the patriarchal structure is prevalent in India and Canada, women are categorised as second-rate citizens and are treated as liabilities by their families due to a lack of financial power. In the absence of any economic, social, emotional, and financial support, they also consider themselves inferior to men. Time and again, they revolt against the mechanical and merciless treatment of their family and society, and sometimes they choose self-exile as a safeguard against the callous and selfish treatment of their family members. Their inner desire to revolt against an oppressive society and the prevailing cultural norm only increases their isolation. In their works, Laurence and Desai have unveiled the tortured psyche of sensitive women, who are unable to share their feelings with others and are destined to live an emotionally deprived life.

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o PDF

Author: Oliver Lovesey

Publisher: Modern Language Association

Published: 2012-12-01

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1603291830

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Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is one of the most important and celebrated authors of postindependence Africa as well as a groundbreaking postcolonial theorist. His work, written first in English, then in Gĩkũyũ, engages with the transformations of his native Kenya after what is often termed the Mau Mau rebellion. It also gives voice to the struggles of all Africans against economic injustice and political oppression. His writing and activism continue despite imprisonment, the threat of assassination, and exile. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," provides resources and background for the teaching of Ngũgĩ's novels, plays, memoirs, and criticism. The essays of part 2, "Approaches," consider the influence of Frantz Fanon, Karl Marx, and Joseph Conrad on Ngũgĩ; the role of women in and influence of feminism on his fiction; his interpretation and political use of African history; his experimentation with orality and allegory in narrative; and the different challenges of teaching Ngũgĩ in classrooms in the United States, Europe, and Africa."