Academic literature on the topic 'Iconoclasm in literature'

The purpose of this. study was to analyze iconoclasm in A.D. Pirous's calligraphy using Nurcholish Madjid's iconoclasm theory. The method used in this research is a literature review. The results and discussion of this research include the biography of A.D. Pirous, the theory of iconoclasm of Nurcholish Madjid, and the analysis of iconoclasm in A.D. Pirous's calligraphy paintings. This study concludes that A.D. Pirous is an Acehnese Muslim artist who developed calligraphy in Indonesia. By establishing his school, Pirous calligraphy created a new style in Islamic art in Indonesia. According to Nurcholish Madjid, Islam is a religion that still applies the concept of iconoclasm in its teachings, including those related to works of art such as calligraphy. The analysis of Nurcholish Madjid's iconoclasm on A.D. Pirous's calligraphy can be seen from two aspects: the release of Pirous in following the rules of calligraphy and the elimination of the sacredness his calligraphy. This research is recommended for further and in-depth research on calligraphy painting or other works of art and the use of iconoclasm theory as an analytical tool, especially Nurcholish Madjid's iconoclasm and other theological studies.

This iconoclastic essay/talk/performance about iconoclasm was influenced by the “Critical Dictionary” in Bataille's Documents magazine and is illustrated with drawings made on a flight from Austin to New York City.

There is a wild iconoclasm that smashes statues, gouges out eyes, and uses the debris to build new, better, bigger monuments. There is a gentler iconoclasm that sees beauty in rubble, and finds in the spectacle of dereliction the consoling reassurance that life carries on. There is a more muted kind of iconoclasm that embalms and catalogues the pieces. In the museum, the things can be divested of their magic and put out of circulation while still being appreciated as fine art. A yet more furtive iconoclasm breaks the spell of this enjoyment by turning this pleasure to subtle profit. The museum becomes a warehouse of examples that can be scrutinized as a vehicle of philosophical truth.

Iconoclasm has proved to be a major feature in modern British drama, where in a short period of time, the theatre has witnessed a host of iconoclastic dramatists, where demythologization has been widespread and fierce and where the icons of the present and the past have been subjected to a wholesale desecration in large numbers at the hands of the Ardens, Brenton, Bond, Churchill and others, who, as their dramatization of history and its idols has shown, have much in common. Although the above playwrights and others were most active towards the end of the sixties and throughout the seventies, their assault, however, has not completely died away in the eighties. As I have shown, Berkoff in 1987 launched in Sink the Belgrano! a fierce onslaught on political sacred cows, including the present Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher who was mercilessly pilloried. On the 19th of February, 1988, Radio Three began broadcasting a nine part iconoclastic cycle by the Ardens, Whose Is The Kingdom? in which iconized personages from Roman history are revealed in a new light. In the above cycle, the playwrights set out to "demolish" "established notions" about Christ, Christianity, and rewrite the history of the Roman Empire, exposing its heroes and icons such as Constantine as manipulators and hypocrites. In other words, the Ardens' iconoclasm does not seem to have subsided; indeed it is on the rise! However, as mentioned earlier, iconoclasm is not merely the result of petty spite; it is a major aspect of political drama. It works towards changing the received images that the audience hold of history, the present and their icons the latter of which represent both the former. However, like the political theatre of which it is part, iconoclasm has failed to achieve its objectives for a number of reasons, foremost of which is the fact that the denigration of a historic idolatrized figure amounts to attacking the audience itself in whose mind, the images of those assaulted are deeply ingrained as holy and untouchable. The audience sees in such figures its own reflection. Lindenberger, in his book Historical Drama rightly argues that historical playwrights could "present a historical character or action within a broad framework of accepted notions". In other words, a playwright dramatizing a historical figure should try to adhere as much as he can to what is handed down to him and to his audience about the figure by history. Lindenberger goes on to say that "Historical material had the same status as myth, both belonged to what Horace called 'publicly known matters' ... and both depended - indeed, still do depend on - an audience's willingness to assimilate the portrayal of a familiar story or personage". Any portrayal of Achilles as not "restless, irascible, unyielding, and hard" would appear to the audience as unacceptable. The above theory can be rightly applied to the iconoclastic modern British playwrights' treatment of venerated persons. The audience would certainly stick to the “accepted notions" about Lord Nelson, Queen Victoria, Sir Winston Churchill and others. Plays such as The Hero Rises Up, Early Morning, and The Churchill Play can only arouse indignation in the audience and not a renunciation of received images. As I have shown, many spectators and critics were offended by, say, Arden's treatment of Nelson or Bond's degradation of Queen Victoria and William Shakespeare. The audience would rather adhere to what it already knows than revise its views, which brings to mind Marx's statement about the spell that the past casts upon the people, "The old has a strong grip on the people and, progress proceeds slowly." "Tradition is a great retarding force, is the vis inertiae of history". "The tradition of all past generations weighs like an Alp upon the brains of the living”. However, although they may be considered to have failed politically to dislodge right-wing iconography, the modern British demythologizers have established iconoclasm as a major trend in modern British drama and have revived an old tradition and consolidated it . Bond, a playwright who has constantly since 1968 called for the renunciation of the past .and its icons is, however, only too aware of the difficulties that his iconoclasm faces, yet as we Mire seen, he has not stopped producing iconoclastic plays. In his play, The Bundle, his revolutionary hero, Wang works hard with his fellow rebels to rid themselves of the past. He eggs them on to think of the future. For that purpose, he narrates to them the story of a man who carried the king on his back all his life, who even "did not know the king had died long ago", and who "carried him always and wasted his life", He goes on to say that the worst thing is "to carry the dead on your back", What the iconoclasts have tried to do during the past two decades is to remove that dead man from their nation's shoulders.

This work explores identity positions of speakers in modern and contemporary poetry with respect to themes of subjectivity, self-awareness, lyricism, heteroglossia, and social contextualization, from perspectives including Bakhtinian, queer, feminist and postructuralist theories, and Peircian semiotics. Tony Hoagland, W.H. Auden, Adrienne Rich, and the poetic prose of Hélène Cixous provide textual examples of an evolving aesthetic in which the poet's self and world comprise multiple dynamic, open relationships supplanting one in which simple correspondences between signifiers and signifieds define selves isolated from the world. Hypertext and polyamory serve as useful analogies to the semantic eros characteristic of such poetry, including the collection of original poems that the critical portion of this thesis introduces.

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Teoria Literária e Literaturas, 2007.
Submitted by Fernanda Weschenfelder (nandaweschenfelder@gmail.com) on 2009-11-26T17:13:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_ClaudiaFeliciaFalluhBalduinoFerreira.PDF: 3913876 bytes, checksum: 8e7a227972e91cf255a6faa99580271a (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Carolina Campos(carolinacamposmaia@gmail.com) on 2010-01-26T19:36:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_ClaudiaFeliciaFalluhBalduinoFerreira.PDF: 3913876 bytes, checksum: 8e7a227972e91cf255a6faa99580271a (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2010-01-26T19:36:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_ClaudiaFeliciaFalluhBalduinoFerreira.PDF: 3913876 bytes, checksum: 8e7a227972e91cf255a6faa99580271a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-06
o presente trabalho é uma análise do modo de formação de uma poética especificamente árabe provinda dos estratos da obra do escritor marroquino de expressão francesa tahar ben jelloun la remontée des cendres, seguida de non identifiés, poemas escritos sobre os mártires da guerra do golfo. este estudo é fundado em três eixos de sustentação que visam a excelência da formulação e a fluidez dos elementos formadores e explicativos de nossos objetivos e de nossas conclusões. o primeiro eixo considera o estudo do iconoclasmo no âmago da religião islâmica primeva, assim como suas relações com o contexto bizantino. a reflexão sobre o dogma, as conseqüências plásticas e políticas sobre bizâncio, as razões da interdição da imagem considerando o absoluto como askematistòs, seguido das considerações de hegel sobre a arte muçulmana abrem o primeiro portal explicativo sobre a herança iconoclasta pelos poetas árabes modernos. o segundo eixo estuda o nascimento da escrita árabe, sua expansão e o surgimento da caligrafia enquanto arte nascida da escrita, assim como a migração e o desenvolvimento dos estilos desde o iraque, seu berço, até os confins do império muçulmano ocidental, mais exatamente o magreb. neste sítio as formas caligráficas são enriquecidas pela atmosfera mediterrânea assim como o espírito do homem, seu imaginário e seu imaginal. os motivos artísticos arabe-islâmicos – a caligrafia e o arabesco – serão explicados em sua essência, e o argumento estético e a história das religiões conduzirão a um sentido que regerá a formulação interna dos poetas modernos na reprodução da forma poética. do cruzamento desses dois eixos surge um terceiro que se designa como a confluência desses pressupostos históricos e artísticos empregados na elucidação do modo de composição da poesia marroquina sobre a guerra. a análise desses dois poemas se realizará através da fenomenologia que, servirá como o vetor explicativo do modo pelo qual o poeta se apropria do material sobre o qual discorremos nos eixos precedentes, os absorve e os transforma criando uma poética particular, exclusiva, clara e distintamente árabe. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT
This study analyses the way a specifically Arab poetics emerges in the work the French-speaking Moroccan poet Tahar Ben Jelloun, with special reference to La remontée des Cendres and Non Identifiés, poems about the martyrs of the Gulf War. The study develops along three central lines of investigation employed to ensure acuteness of analysis and fluidity in furnishing explanations of the objectives pursued and the conclusions reached. The first line addresses the iconoclasm at the heart of early Islam and its place in the Byzantine context. Reflection on dogma, the plastic and political consequences of Byzantium, the reasons for proscribing images portraying the Absolute as Askematistòs, in the light of Hegel’s remarks on Moslem art, open the first explanatory window on the iconoclastic heritage bequeathed to modern Arab poets. The second line of investigation follows the birth of Arabic writing, its expansion, and the emergence of calligraphy as an art form derived from lettering. It likewise traces migration and the development of different styles ranging across the Islamic world from its birthplace in Iraq to the western reaches of the Moslem empire, the Maghreb. There calligraphic forms are enhanced by the Mediterranean atmosphere, the human spirit and imagination, man’s “imaginal” world. Arab-Islamic artistic motifs – calligraphy and arabesques – are explained in terms of their essence. The aesthetic argument and the history of religions serve to forge meaning that will fire the inner workings of modern poets as they reproduce poetic form. These two lines of investigation converge to forge a third that emerges as a confluence of the historical and artistic precepts employed to elucidate the compositional mode of Moroccan poetry about the war victims. Phenomenology is used in the analysis of these two poems as a vector for explaining the way the poet handles the material features described in the preceding lines of investigation, absorbing and transforming them to create a peculiar, exclusive, distinctly and unmistakably Arab poetics. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ RESUMÉ
Ce travail est une analyse du mode de formation d’une poétique spécifiquement arabe issue des strates de l’oeuvre de l’écrivain marocain d’expression française Tahar Ben Jelloun La remontée des Cendres suivie de Non Identifiés, poèmes écrits sur la guerre du Golfe. Cette étude est fondée sur trois grands axes de support visant l’excellence de la formulation et la fluidité des éléments formateurs et explicatifs de notre but et de nos conclusions. L’axe premier envisage une étude sur l’iconoclasme au sein de l’islam primitif ainsi que ses rapports avec le contexte byzantin. La réflexion sur le dogme, les conséquences plastiques et politiques sur Byzance, les raison de l’interdiction de l’image considérant l’Absolu comme Askematistòs, suivi des considérations de Hegel sur l’art musulman ouvrent le premier portail explicatif de l’héritage iconoclaste par les poètes arabes modernes. Le deuxième axe soutiendra une étude sur la naissance de l’écriture arabe, son expansion et le surgissement de la calligraphie en tant qu’art issue de l’écrit, ainsi que la migration et le développement des styles depuis l’Irak, son lieu de naissance, aux confins de l’empire musulman occidental, plus exactement le Maghreb. Dans ce site les formes calligraphiques s’enrichissent de l’ambiance méditerranéenne ainsi que de l’esprit de l’homme mauresque, son imaginaire et son imaginal. Les motifs artistiques arabo-islamiques – la calligraphie et l’arabesque – seront expliqués dans son essence où l’argument esthétique unit à l’histoire des religions conduisent à un sens qui régira la formulation interne des poètes modernes dans la reproduction de la forme poétique. Du croisement de ces deux axes se manifeste un troisième qui est la confluence de ces présupposés historiques et artistiques employés dans l’élucidation du mode de composition de la poésie marocaine sur les victimes de la guerre. L’analyse des deux poèmes se réalisera par le biais de la phénoménologie qui agira comme le vecteur explicatif du mode dont l’écrivain s’approprie du matériau étudié dans les axes précédents, les absorbe et les vivifie en créant une poétique arabe particulière, exclusive, claire et distincte.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2005.
Advisor: Dr. James O'Rourke, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 19, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 62 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

This chapter introduces the book as a whole, tracing the history of protestant iconoclasm and ruin creation across the long reformation, from the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s to the disestablishment of the English protestant church in the 1650s. It focuses attention on the poet George Herbert, whose poems, in The Temple (1633), on aspects of church interiors bear witness to the sanctioned iconoclasm of successive Tudor governments—iconoclasm that had broken altars, upended statues, and whitewashed church walls. Herbert was a protestant minister whose poetry celebrates the church established under Elizabeth I, defining its reformed appearance as a middle ground—‘Neither too mean, nor yet too gay’—between Genevan Calvinism and Roman catholicism. But Herbert’s poetry also reveals anxieties about the future of English protestantism—besieged not only by catholic plots but also by puritan and presbyterian clamours for further church reform. Herbert’s anxieties over this twofold threat to the English church are at once anti-catholic and anti-iconoclastic. Although Herbert celebrates the protestant reforms that had dissolved monasteries and destroyed catholic shrines, his poetry also attacks puritans, whose dissatisfaction with the half-hearted reforms of the Elizabethan settlement sought in Herbert’s eyes to ruin the church from within. Herbert’s paranoid poetry provides a keynote for this study’s exploration of the ruined churches and monasteries represented in early modern English literature—ruins, the study argues, that betray similar anxieties about the consequences of catholic plots and puritan iconoclasm for the fate of the English church in its formative century.

This chapter advances an ecocritical reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, addressing various poems’ engagement with fundamental questions of organismic life. Approached as an ecosystem, the Sonnets predicate a new version of the self/world relationship. Their interdependence is conveyed via Shakespeare’s reliance on botanical tropes and images, though these are provocatively reimagined. Tracking such moments of iconoclasm yields updated readings of “art” and “nature” and generates fresh insights about “zoe” and “bios,” concepts essential to ecocritical thought. The omnipresent antinomies of “art/nature” and “zoe/bios” underscore the Sonnets’ quest for permanence, serving as a reminder that the ecological cannot be considered in isolation from the psychological. Ultimately, Shakespeare appropriates to the lyric mode the eternizing properties conventionally ascribed to the botanical world.

ISIS iconoclasm and destruction of heritage sites, including the looting and the hijacking of museums that they have famously called ‘dens of infidels’, has been well-documented in the heritage literature. Little has been said, however, about ISIS’s production and programming of its own ‘public culture’. This chapter argues that ISIS is a prolific generator and a redoubtable self-promoter, with thousands of images circulating on the internet. This self-generating databank constitutes what the author calls ‘the ISIS archive’, a virtual exhibitionary space that the organisation uses to diffuse its propaganda but also to define and assert its values and beliefs. In a context where political Islam and religious fundamentalism remain tightly controlled by governments across the region, and beyond it, and where (prospective) ISIS members are scattered around the globe, the internet provides a useful and unrestricted space of connection. This chapter reconsiders the common understanding of what heritage and museums are, especially in relation to the culture of ‘unwanted communities’, in this case communities that attract international criticism and embarrassment and cause major local traumas.