A lecture by Daniel Johnson in partnership with FSV UK (IMS, IPS, IKSŽ) and CEFRES.
Daniel Johnson is a British historian and conservative journalist, co-founder in 2008 and editor of an influential cultural and political monthly Standpoint.
Where: Conference room, Narodni 18 (7th floor), Prague 1
Language: English
More information on the website of Standpoint.
A lecture by profesor Gregor McLennan organized by Centre for Science, Technology, and Society Studies (Institute of Philosophy AV ČR), Program Prvouk 19 “Interdisciplinary sciences”, Department of Historical Sociology FHS UK and CEFRES.
Where: Jinonice, U Kříže 8, Praha 5 – room 6022.
Language: English.
The lecture is going to be held within the frame of the cycle “Historical Sociology Confrontations”.
Zygmunt Bauman once characterized the shift from modernity to postmodernity in terms of the changing style of intellectuals, from the model of the ‘legislator’ to that of the ‘interpreter’. With the blurring of any sharp contrast between modernity and postmodernity, a third figure, that of the ‘mediator’, has come to the fore. Working through various ways in which the rather bland connotations of mediation can be upgraded and energized, I identify the late Stuart Hall as an outstanding mediator in the last 50 years of critical social thought – though this involves questioning some received wisdom about Hall within cultural studies itself. And it turns out that one condition of being a notable intellectual mediator is the retention of a definite degree of ‘legislation’, in this case Hall’s continued (if stretched) allegiance to Marxism. I then consider (also affirmatively) the very different case of Ernest Gellner, who is sometimes thought to have been so legislatively modernist (and thus also ‘Eurocentric’ and ideologically ‘secularist’) as to have little to offer the ‘postsecular’ frame of understanding that is increasingly prominent in our times.
Gregor McLennan is Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. Building on previous writings on Marxism, pluralism, sociology and cultural studies, Prof McLennan’s more recent work has examined the theoretical challenges posed by contemporary postcolonialism and postsecularism.
Contact:
– Filip Vostal (FLÚ AV ČR, CEFRES) filip.vostal@gmail.com
– Nicolas Maslowski (FHS UK) nicolas.maslowski@gmail.com
– Marek Skovajsa (FHS UK) marek.skovajsa@fhs.cuni.cz
Where: Filosofický ústav AV ČR, conference room (124a), Jilská 1, Prague 1.
Organizers: Centre for Science, Technology, and Society Studies (Institute of Philosophy AV ČR) & CEFRES.
Language: English.
The world we inhabit is characterized by conflicting and often incommensurable temporalities. Investigations of such tensions between and among various temporalities, how they interact and their specificities are now self-standing issues in contemporary social analysis. This half-day symposium aims to explore theoretical and methodological inquiries into the shifting character of social temporalities as they relate to the broader socio-economic and cultural change, including the overall dynamization of life and work. The two panels will focus on various perceptions of time, temporal tactics and ways in which diverse actors (institutions and individuals) negotiate and embody different temporal aspects of late modern social realities as well as on how social acceleration as such becomes perpetuated through various agentic strategies.
10.30: Introduction & Opening
EXPLORING SOCIAL TEMPORALITIES
10.45 – 11.15: Immediacy, liveness, ceaselessness: foundations and consequences of the contemporary news environment – Marek Šebeš (PF JU)
11.15 – 11.45: Having no time in empty time: temporalities of the homeless – Petr Vašát (SOÚ AV ČR)
JUST HOW FAST IS ACCELERATED MODERNITY?
12.00 – 12.30: Coping with acceleration: triaging strategies and the new asceticism – Mark Carrigan (University of Warwick)
12.30 – 13.00: Fast modernity: ‘deflationary’ notes – Filip Vostal (FLÚ AV ČR & CEFRES)
13.00-13.30: Closing discussion
Where: FF UK, nám. Jana Palacha 2, room 201
Organizers: FF UK & CEFRES
Investigating legendary figures who became famous for their tribulations with the devil, these two lectures aim at reflecting upon the part played by alterity in the construction of the subject. They present an opposition between one who endeavors to tear the soul from Satan’s grip, and one who enjoys playing with one’s demon in the hope of knowing fear. Notwithstanding a few escapes in post-medieval rewritings, the various cultural heritages which such legends carry shall be reappraised so to explore the evolution of the beliefs to which they pertain: from a terroristic devil to a powerless demon.
After a brief account on the historical, mythical and literary influences at the background of this 13th century narrative, the presentation will focus on the access conditions to sainthood through this story of a child born from the devil. Special emphasis will be devoted to its intertextual traces with other contemporary narratives of conversion.
Persecuted by a demon that drags him in its nightlife adventures, this 15th century hero and the alleged son of Robert the Devil’s main feature is a boldness akin to indifference to the metaphysical stakes of his supernatural encounter. What is the meaning of such fearlessness at the end of the Middle Ages as shown by the literary parody as well as by the moral exemplum?
A former fellow of École normale supérieure (Paris), Pr. Élisabeth Gaucher-Rémond teached French medieval language and literature at the Nantes University. After completing her PhD on knightly biographies from the 13th to the 15th century (Champion, 1994), she kept on exploring the interferences between reality and imagination in historical-legendary narratives (Robert le Diable, Richard sans Peur) and the representation of the individual (within the interdisciplinary research program MEDIEVARS). She’s currently writing an essai on Autobiographical Forms in Medieval Literature and a new edition of Richard sans Peur.
Latest Publications
Where: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3.
Organizers: FF UK and CEFRES.
Focusing on theatre in French, this paper investigates the turn of 15th and 16th century, when theater and print developed hand in hand. Is a “political theater” being then shaped? What circumstances, which authors and actors, play genres, and audiences could such a political communication involve, and with which efficiency?
Signature is considered today as a key-element of the “function author” as defined by Michel Foucault. The recurrent anonymity of Medieval literature led to believe in the lack of signature, and therefore of authors. Yes, from the 12th to the 16th centuries, French-writing authors reflected on signature, on its forms and functions. Signature revealed the status of the author—whether gentle or intellectual, whether man or woman. It defined the genres in which it came up, such as the novel, poetry and autobiography. It shaped the relationship between the writer and the reader.
A former fellow of Ecole normale supérieure, Pr. Estelle Doudet teaches medieval language and literatyre at the University of Grenoble Alpes. She is a member of the Institut universitaire de France. Her works focus on the archeology of media and public communication in French, among which on eloquence and performing arts in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Within the research unit Litt&Arts, she is in charge of the research group on “comparative media studies” and heads the research area on Arts, Literatures, Languages, Human, Cognitive and Social Sciences of Grenoble University.
Among her publications:
Edita Wolf (FF UK – CEFRES) will give a lecture in the frame of the colloquium series on Antic Philosophy of the Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought of the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Where: Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Jilská 1, Prague 1, conference room.
Language: Czech.
