Dr. Ross King recently edited a special issue of Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies entitled “Inter- and Intralingual Translation in the Sinographic Cosmopolis.”
This special issue was published November 15, 2023.
Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies 23(2) ed. by Dr. Ross King
The Crimean War and Cultural Memory: The War France Won and Forgot by Dr. Sima Godfrey
Sima Godfrey is an associate professor emerita of French at the University of British Columbia. Her book, The Crimean War and Cultural Memory: The War France Won and Forgot, was published in September 2023 by the University of Toronto Press.
The Crimean War (1854–56) is widely considered the first modern war with its tactical use of railways, telegraphs, and battleships, its long-range rifles, and its notorious trenches – precursors of the Great War. It is also the first media war: the first to know the impact of a correspondent on the field of battle and the first to be documented in photographs. No one, however, including the French themselves, seems to remember that France was there, fighting in Crimea, losing 95,000 soldiers and leading the Allied campaign to victory. It would seem that the Crimean War has no place in the canon of culturally retained historical events that define modern French identity.
Looking at literature, art, theatre, material objects, and medical reports, The Crimean War and Cultural Memory considers how the Crimean War was and was not represented in French cultural history in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ultimately, the book illuminates the forgotten traces that the Crimean War left on the French cultural landscape.
Reviews
“How does a war – a war that was won – disappear from a nation’s memory? Despite the strained efforts of Napoleon III to celebrate the victory, despite the wealth of images, plays, eye-witness accounts, and memorabilia, and despite the horrifying number of deaths, the Crimean War and its victims were forgotten. Godfrey’s vivid book exposes the powerful dynamics that wiped both the triumphs and the tragedies of the war from French collective memory.” — Judith A. Miller, Associate Professor of History, Emory University
“The Crimean War and Cultural Memory offers an outstanding, well-researched account of how national cultures remember and especially forget complex historical events. Godfrey’s insightful discussion of a war that strangely disappeared from French national memory combines excellent empirical details with theoretical reflections that explain how national identities evolve through constant forgetting as well as very selective remembering.” — Lloyd Kramer, Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
“Godfrey’s thoroughly researched and engagingly written book offers not just an in-depth analysis of representations of the Crimean War in a variety of media but also a profound reflection on the vicissitudes of cultural memory. By asking why the French have forgotten one of their greatest victories, Godfrey leads us to consider how certain historical events retain their hold over the popular imagination while others fade into oblivion.” — Maurice Samuels, Betty Jane Anlyan Professor of French, Yale University, and author of The Spectacular Past
“An eminent scholar of French literature and culture, Godfrey examines France’s forgotten war in meticulous detail, showing us its half-erased traces in literature, visual culture, and monumental architecture. This haunting study is both timely and timeless.” — Patrick M. Bray, Professor of French Literature, University College London
The Interwar World ed. by Dr. Andrew Denning and Dr. Heidi J.S. Tworek
Dr. Andrew Denning and Dr. Heidi J.S. Tworek‘s edited volume The Interwar World was published August 29, 2023 by Routledge.
The Interwar World collects an international group of over 50 contributors to discuss, analyze, and interpret this crucial period in twentieth-century history. A comprehensive understanding of the interwar era has been limited by Euro-American approaches and strict adherence to the temporal limits of the world wars. The volume’s contributors challenge the era’s accepted temporal and geographic framings by privileging global processes and interactions. Each contribution takes a global, thematic approach, integrating world regions into a shared narrative.
Three central questions frame the chapters. First, when was the interwar? Viewed globally, the years 1918 and 1939 are arbitrary limits, and the volume explicitly engages with the artificiality of the temporal framework while closely examining the specific dynamics of the 1920s and 1930s. Second, where was the interwar? Contributors use global history methodologies and training in varied world regions to decenter Euro-American frameworks, engaging directly with the usefulness of the interwar as both an era and an analytical category. Third, how global was the interwar? Authors trace accelerating connections in areas such as public health and mass culture counterbalanced by processes of economic protectionism, exclusive nationalism, and limits to migration. By approaching the era thematically, the volume disaggregates and interrogates the meaning of the ‘global’ in this era.
As a comprehensive guide, this volume offers overviews of key themes of the interwar period for undergraduates, while offering up-to-date historiographical insights for postgraduates and scholars interested in this pivotal period in global history.
Anders als die Andern by Dr. Ervin Malakaj
Dr. Ervin Malakaj‘s book Anders als die Andern was published on August 1, 2023 by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Released in 1919, Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others) stunned audiences with its straightforward depiction of queer love. Supporters celebrated the film’s moving storyline, while conservative detractors succeeded in prohibiting public screenings. Banned and partially destroyed after the rise of Nazism, the film was lost until the 1970s and only about one-third of its original footage is preserved today.
Directed by Richard Oswald and co-written by Oswald and the renowned sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, Anders als die Andern is a remarkable artifact of cinema culture connected to the vibrant pre-Stonewall homosexual rights movement of early-twentieth-century Germany. The film makes a strong case for the normalization of homosexuality and for its decriminalization, but the central melodrama still finds its characters undone by their public outing. Ervin Malakaj sees the film’s portrayal of the pain of living life queerly as generating a complex emotional identification in modern spectators, even those living in apparently friendlier circumstances. There is a strange comfort in knowing that we are not alone in our struggles, and Malakaj recuperates Anders als die Andern’s mournful cinema as an essential element of its endurance, treating the film’s melancholia both as a valuable feeling in and of itself and as a springboard to engage in an intergenerational queer struggle.
Over a century after the film’s release, Anders als die Andern serves as a stark reminder of how hostile the world can be to queer people, but also as an object lesson in how to find sustenance and social connection in tragic narratives.
*All information copied from publisher’s website
Presents and Futures of Catalan Studies: A North American Perspective ed. by Dr. Anna Casas Aguilar et al.
This special edition of Catalan Review was edited by Anna Casas Aguilar, Maria Dasca, Ignasi Gozalo and Núria Silleras and was published by Liverpool University Press on July 26, 2023. Read Volume 37, Issue 1, “Presents and Futures of Catalan Studies: A North American Perspective”.
Navigating from the White Anthropocene to the Black Chthulucene by Dr. William Brown
Dr. William Brown‘s book Navigating from the White Anthropocene to the Black Chthulucene was published on June 26, 2023 by CollectiveInk.
Navigating from the White Anthropocene to the Black Chthulucene radically re-interprets Buster Keaton’s iconic 1924 film, The Navigator, through the combined lenses of posthumanism and critical race theory. This book deconstructs the film’s underlying anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity while exposing the unthinking whiteness of theorists and philosophers, including Gilles Deleuze, who have given Keaton’s work pride of place in the history of cinema. Through its daring and provocative analysis of Keaton’s classic, Navigating from the White Anthropocene to the Black Chthulucene invites us to consider cinema itself, at least in its classical narrative form, as a tool for constructing and maintaining white supremacy while building the conceptual tools for a world beyond whiteness.
Cosmopolitan and Vernacular in the World of Wen: Reading Sheldon Pollock from the Sinographic Cosmopolis ed. by Dr. Ross King
Sheldon Pollock’s work on the history of literary cultures in the ‘Sanskrit Cosmopolis’ broke new ground in the theorization of historical processes of vernacularization and served as a wake-up call for comparative approaches to such processes in other translocal cultural formations. But are his characterizations of vernacularization in the Sinographic Sphere accurate, and do his ideas and framework allow us to speak of a ‘Sinographic Cosmopolis’? How do the special typology of sinographic writing and associated technologies of vernacular reading complicate comparisons between the Sankrit and Latinate cosmopoleis? Such are the questions tackled in this volume.
Contributors are Daehoe Ahn, Yufen Chang, Wiebke Denecke, Torquil Duthie, Marion Eggert, Greg Evon, Hoduk Hwang, John Jorgensen, Ross King, David Lurie, Alexey Lushchenko, Si Nae Park, John Phan, Mareshi Saito, and S. William Wells.
*This blurb is taken from the publisher’s website.
Marx’s Wager: Das Kapital and Classical Sociology by Dr. Thomas Kemple
Dr. Thomas Kemple‘s book, Marx’s Wager: Das Kapital and Classical Sociology, was published on October 13, 2022 by Palgrave Macmillan Cham. PDF downloads are free for members of the UBC community.
Overview
- Demonstrates how influential classical sociologists read Capital
- Identifies the implications of Marx’s reception for later social scientists
- Examines how early thinkers understand theory and practice
Summary
Marx’s masterpiece Capital (Das Kapital) ignored or misread as well as selectively and creatively interpreted by the generation of social scientists that came after him. Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel attempt to supplement what they call ‘historical materialism’ or to engage in debates about ‘socialism’ through their readings of The Communist Manifesto and occasional Capital. Although these and other classical sociologists did not have access to most of Marx’s published and unpublished works as we do today, each is concerned with revising and refining Marx’s unfinished critique of political economy. Despite their differences with Marx and with one another, they share his concern with how empirically detailed and scientifically valid knowledge of the social world may inform historical struggles for a more human world. This commitment can be called ‘Faustian’, after the title character of the poet J. W. von Goethe’s tragic epic of modernity, insofar as Marx and the classical sociologists hope to translate theory into practice while making a pact or wager with the diabolical social, political, and economic forces of the modern world.“Marx’s Wager explores the interconnections between the various classical sociological thinkers by focusing on their relations (direct and indirect) to the work of Karl Marx. In the process we are offered fascinating new insights into Marx, together with new ways of looking at figures as various as Herbert Spencer, Auguste Comte, Harriet Martineau, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, Thorstein Veblen, W.E.B. Du Bois, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Sigmund Freud. The result is an intellectual feast for sociologists.” – John Bellamy Foster, Professor of Sociology, University of Oregon, author of The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology
Reviews
“In Marx’s Wager, Thomas Kemple explores the dense and thorny bramble where the classic sociological tradition wrestled with Marx’s critique of political economy even as it tried to escape from his socialist conclusions. A book replete with keen observations and insights, this is also a profound meditation on what it means to really engage with the modern world, to study its forces and dynamics in the hope that one might, in some measure, transform it.” — William Clare Roberts, Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University, author of Marx’s Inferno: The Political Theory of Marx’s Capital
“What a treasure of insight awaits readers who open this fine book! With a light touch and a lapidary style, Thomas Kemple offers a master class in Marx’s Capital, which he views through a double lens—on the one hand, the literary masterpieces from which Marx drew inspiration, and second, the classical sociology which drew inspiration from Marx and Capital. Wearing his erudition lightly, Kemple weaves a tapestry in which Marx appears alongside Goethe, Dante, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, and a cornucopia of others. Subtleties of Marx’s analysis are matched with corresponding subtleties in the works of his successors, and it becomes clear that, clichés to the contrary notwithstanding, all of the major classical sociologists contributed to the project he inaugurated—the effort to understand capital in the light of what Kemple calls Marx’s “surplus-value theory of labour-power.” That effort, in the age of globalization, remains as relevant as ever, and Thomas Kemple is a sure-footed guide to the classical literatures that, I am convinced, remain central to our insight into this subject.” — David N. Smith, Professor of Sociology, University of Kansas, author of Marx’s Capital: An Illustrated Introduction
“This book takes its reader on a Faustian journey, with Marx’s Capital—one of the most profound works in social theory ever written, yet largely underappreciated or misrepresented—at the center of its own wager. An exemplary work of interpretive sociology, the book animates encounters with some of the most influential early sociologists through brilliantly constructed juxtapositions and creative syntheses.The journey is as thrilling as it is thought provoking.” — Babak Amini, Visiting Research Fellow in Sociology at the London School of Economics, co-editor of the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Marx’s Capital: A Global History of Translation.
“Provides some very creative readings of Marx in relation to social theory for the twenty-first century.” — Kevin B. Anderson, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara, author of Marx at the Margins
*All book information is copied from the publisher’s website.
Culture Work: Folklore For the Public Good ed. by Dr. Tim Frandy and Dr. B. Marcus Cederström
Culture Work: Folklore For the Public Good edited by Dr. Tim Frandy and Dr. B. Marcus Cederström was published on August 1, 2022 by the University of Wisconsin Press.
“A timely and much-needed resource for those inside and outside academia, Culture Work provides a powerful overview of the value of public folklore and humanities across private and institutional sectors while raising issues associated with cultural work in a politically and socially stratified country.”
A distinct and new vision of public folklore work
How do culture workers construct public arts and culture projects that are effective and transformative? How do we create public humanities projects of the community, for the community, and with the community? How can culture work make a concrete difference in the quality of life for communities, and lead to the creation of a more just world? Why do the public humanities matter? Culture Work explores these questions through real-world examples of cultural and public humanities projects. The innovative case studies analyzed in the book demonstrate the vast numbers of creative possibilities in culture work today—in all their complexities, challenges, and potentialities.
Thematically arranged chapters embody the interconnected aspects of culture work, from amplifying local voices to galvanizing community from within, from preservation of cultural knowledge to its creative repurposing for a desired future. These inventive projects provide concrete examples and accessible theory grounded in practice, encourage readers to embark on their own public culture work, and create new forward-looking inspiration for community leaders and scholars in the field.
Praise
“A seminal work of impressively informative scholarship.” — Midwest Book Review
“An admirable set of case studies of contemporary public folklore work in and outside the academy. . . . As time goes on and the field continues to develop, Culture Work will come to be a valuable portrait and assessment of the state of the field at this moment. . . . [It] makes an articulate contribution to the ongoing project of evidencing, in emphatic and broadly understandable terms, what the humanities and humanistic social sciences are (good) for.” — Journal of Folklore Research Reviews
“Filled with stories of individuals, communities, and cultural workers dedicated to sustaining the traditional songs, stories, material culture, and knowledge of the region, and insights into how those expressions cultivate and enhance community. . . . Culture Work will be an engaging read for anyone interested in the power that lies within the practices of sustaining, reimagining, or creating new cultural traditions.” — Wisconsin People & Ideas
“A refreshing manual of sorts for collaborative research, public projects, the tools of our work, and reflection on its impacts. . . . The text’s overall structure nicely performs the balance between grounded work and distanced reflection that the authors advocate for in their conception of culture work, moving between ideas and application. . . . Overall, Culture Work does much to advance conversations about what folklore and folklorists can offer broad publics.” — Journal of Folklore and Education
*All information copied from publisher’s website.
Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona by Dr. Anna Casas Aguilar
Dr. Anna Casas Aguilar‘s book Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona was published by the University of Toronto Press in May 2022.
Bilingual Legacies examines fatherhood in the work of four canonical Spanish authors born in Barcelona and raised during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Drawing on the autobiographical texts of Juan Goytisolo, Carlos Barral, Terenci Moix, and Clara Janés, the book explores how these authors understood gender roles and paternal figures as well as how they positioned themselves in relation to Spanish and Catalan literary traditions.
Anna Casas Aguilar contends that through their presentation of father figures, these authors subvert static ideas surrounding fatherhood. She argues that this diversity was crucial in opening the door to revised gender models in Spain during the democratic period. Moving beyond the shadow of the dictator, Casas Aguilar shows how these writers distinguished between the patriarchal “father of the nation” and their own paternal figures. In doing so, Bilingual Legacies sheds light on the complexity of Spanish conceptions of gender, language, and family and illustrates how notions of masculinity, authorship, and canon are interrelated.
Commended – NACS Award 2024
Awarded by the North American Catalan Society
Reviews
“Through an illuminating reading of the autobiographical works of four major literary figures – Juan Goytisolo, Carlos Barral, Terenci Moix, and Clara Janés – Anna Casas Aguilar interrogates the complex interplay of compliance and rebellion and exposes how familial affiliation impacted their lives as writers and particularly their choice of literary language.” — Mario Santana, Associate Professor of Spanish Literature, University of Chicago
“Through brilliant close readings, Bilingual Legacies tackles politically fraught issues of literary, linguistic, and gender subjectivity. It also reveals the centrality, as well as the potential lines of fracture, of the masculinist and patriarchal literary economy in which the authors operated. This is an important book, one that helps us better understand the linguistic and gender dynamics of contemporary literary discourses in Spain and Catalonia.” — Javier Krauel, Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Colorado at Boulder
“An important contribution to both the study of autobiography and bilingualism in post-Franco Spain. A richly detailed analysis of canonical and less known titles puts them in a new light where the politics of language become inseparable from family stories. Bilingual Legacies is essential reading about the intricacies of literary depictions of Spanish and Catalan linguistic identities.” — Alberto Medina, Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University
*All information taken from publisher’s website.