Modernity in Crisis: A Dialogue on the Culture of Belonging

ISBN-13: 9780230108790 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 205 str.

Leonidas Donskis

Opis

A critical inquiry into postmodern anxiety, fear, indifference, obsessive attention seeking, and the disappearance of privacy and of public space, the book offers penetrating insights into what its author terms the troubled identity, and also into the cultural canon, the weakened sense of belonging, and the inflation of key political concepts. Blending political theory and philosophy of culture, the book exposes the tension between thought and action, politics and literature, power and dissent in postmodern politics and culture. A polemical book of an Eastern European, it raises the pivotal issues of present Europe's cultural identity and political existence.

Recenzje

"Passionate and erudite, engagingly written and courageously profound, this new book by Leonidas Donskis highlights the meanders, dilemmas, and paradoxes of modernity. It should be read by all those who reject simplistic platitudes and who are not afraid of often disturbing complexities." - Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland"This is a powerful original contribution to the philosophy of culture. Donskis shows that modernity is perforce always troubled, for we are confronted with competing cultural and political traditions from which we have emerged, while we are obliged to face divergent directions for our next steps. The result of Donskis s bold exploration is an impressive travelogue of the human spirit in which the reader takes an active part. This is truly what must be called an engaging book." - Robert Ginsberg, Director, The International Center for the Arts, Humanities, and Value Inquiry

Spis treści

Troubled Identity, or the European Canon and the Dilemmas of Memory Secrets, Mysteries, and Conspiracies, or What am I not Supposed to Know? From Stendhal to Zygmunt Bauman: Two Kinds of Anxiety, or Tell Me What You Fear the Most Hijacking Someone Else's Narrative, Employing Comparative Martyrology, and Inflating the Concepts, or Who is Suffering the Most? In the Name of Civilization, or the New Masks of Fear and Hatred

O autorze

LEONIDAS DONSKIS is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy at Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas, Lithuania.