Evil, Barbarism and Empire (original) (raw)
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Barbarism and civilization form one of the oldest and most rigid oppositions in Western history. According to this dichotomy, barbarism functions as the negative standard through which "civilization" fosters its self-definition and superiority by labeling others "barbarians." Since the 1990s, and especially since 9/11, these terms have become increasingly popular in Western political and cultural rhetoric—a rhetoric that divides the world into forces of good and evil. This study intervenes in this recent trend and interrogates contemporary and historical uses of barbarism, arguing that barbarism also has a disruptive, insurgent potential. Boletsi recasts barbarism as a productive concept, finding that it is a common thread in works of literature, art, and theory. By dislodging barbarism from its conventional contexts, this book reclaims barbarism's edge and proposes it as a useful theoretical tool.
Civilisations Barbarity Conquest
Lecture Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, 2022
Civilisation, Barbarity, Conquest, Legitimacy and Crimes of War I'm speaking, of course about the war in Ukraine and what I think it means. Before I do so I need, as trustees in British charitable institutions are obliged to, to declare an interest. My wife, a British university teacher, was born in Odessa and has her second home and in
Korstanje M. E The Philosophy of Empires, Fear, and Excemplary Sentiment. Human and Social Studies: research & Practice. Volume III, Issue 2. June 2014. (pp. 11-33) Material Disponible en http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/hssr.2013.2.issue-2/hssr-2013-0002/hssr-2013-0002.xml. Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania. ISSN 2285-1567
Evil as a Crime Against Humanity
Springer eBooks, 2021
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Barbarism Revisited: New Perspectives on an Old Concept (ed. by M. Boletsi and Christian Moser)
The figure of the barbarian has captivated the Western imagination from Greek antiquity to the present. Since the 1990s, the rhetoric of civilization versus barbarism has taken center stage in Western political rhetoric and the media. But how can the longevity and popularity of this opposition be accounted for? Why has it become such a deeply ingrained habit of thought that is still being so effectively mobilized in Western discourses? The twenty essays in this volume revisit well-known and obscure chapters in barbarism's genealogy from new perspectives and through contemporary theoretical idioms. With studies spanning from Greek antiquity to the present, they show how barbarism has functioned as the negative outside separating a civilized interior from a barbarian exterior; as the middle term in-between savagery and civilization in evolutionary models; as a repressed aspect of the civilized psyche; as concomitant with civilization; as a term that confuses fixed notions of space and time; or as an affirmative notion in philosophy and art, signifying radical change and regeneration. Proposing an original interdisciplinary approach to barbarism, this volume includes both overviews of the concept's travels as well as specific case studies of its workings in art, literature, philosophy, film, ethnography, design, and popular culture in various periods, geopolitical contexts, and intellectual traditions. Through this kaleidoscopic view of the concept, it recasts the history of ideas not only as a task for historians, but also literary scholars, art historians, and cultural analysts.
Civilization: A Document of Barbarism
Criterion Quarterly , 2014
Like other words, the very word civilization is not as sublime and humane as it appears, for it has a seamy side which tends to be overlooked in the narcissist representation of civilization in the nationalist and academic discourse. Like other things in the world, the idea of civilization also degenerates in the shape of wars and contributes to the construction of inhuman “Others”. This paper tries to trace how the very word of civilization is employed to differentiate one group of human beings from other cultural groups. The inherent narcissism in the idea of civilization makes people to deem people other than their own group as animals or sub-human. Hence, the age old practice of comparing civilized nations with barbarians.