Flaubert Postsecular: Modernity Crossed Out (Cultural Memory in the Present)

By his national affiliation and choice of genre, French novelist Gustave Flaubert can be considered emblematic of modernity. This book showcases his specific and highly refined imaginary as at once unique and symptomatic of an era. In particular, it contributes to the controversial discussion of modernity's relation to religion. At a time when new religious fundamentalisms throughout the world are on the rise, this has only become a more pressing issue. Through this single acclaimed author, we realize that modernity can only be understood in terms of its critical rewriting of religious dogma. Strikingly, already in Flaubert, this rewriting emerges in conjunction with questions of the Orient and Orientalism. Flaubert's Orient is an Other that is always already within Western society. By highlighting the complexity of the relation between religion, modernity, and the Oriental, Barbara Vinken's discussion of these issues goes beyond simple binaries. Her Flaubert Postsecular is a model of scholarly research with far-reaching political implications.

Literature & Fiction

Vinken, Barbara

History & Criticism

Stanford University Press

Civil War and the Collapse of the Social Bond (Classics after Antiquity)

Can civil war ever be overcome? Can a better order come into being? This book explores how the Roman civil wars of the first century BCE laid the template for addressing perennially urgent questions. The Roman Republic's collapse and Augustus' new Empire have remained ideological battlegrounds to this day. Integrative and disintegrative readings begun in antiquity (Vergil and Lucan) have left their mark on answers given by Christians (Augustine), secular republicans (Victor Hugo), and disillusioned satirists (Michel Houellebecq) alike. France's self-understanding as a new Rome – republican during the Revolution, imperial under successive Napoleons – makes it a special case in the Roman tradition. The same story returns repeatedly. A golden age of restoration glimmers on the horizon, but comes in the guise of a decadent, oriental empire that reintroduces and exposes everything already wrong under the defunct republic. Central to the price of social order is patriarchy's need to subjugate women.

Civil War and the Collapse of the Social Bond: The Roman Tradition at the Heart of the Modern (Classics after Antiquity)

History

Lowrie, Michèle

Ancient Civilizations

Cambridge University Press

Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and Cycles in the Fashion System

Although it is appealing to think that fashion has taken a sharp turn away from conventions established in the industry over the past century and more, is this really the case? Or are 'pioneering' designs simply part of a cyclical revival of forgotten fashions? Looking at some of the most influential designers of the twentieth century, Vinken considers the politics and philosophies that have been the driving forces directing their sense of style.Vinken describes 'Fashion Zeitgeist' as a trend characterized by representations of traces of the past. She considers the key concepts behind designers such as Yamamoto, Gaultier, and Lagerfeld. The originality of Yamamoto's multi-layered look stems from his philosophy that it is the individual sum of experience that is important, not the collective consequences of history. Martin Margiela, although he himself refuses to be photographed or appear in the public eye, brings new individuality into fashion. Chanel, under the direction of Karl Lagerfeld, is viewed as the only fashion house to have remained fresh after 100 years, yet is this success essentially proof of the self-referential qualities fashion has adopted? What inspired the fetish for labels at the end of the twentieth century? Answering these questions and many more, this concise and thought-provoking book shows how beauty, gender, sexuality, commerce and dandyism have persisted in defining the fashion system.

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

Berg Publishers

Future Beauty is the first comprehensive survey of Japanese avant-garde fashion of the last 30 years. Such designers as Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo made an enormous impact on the world fashion scene in the late twentieth century, challenging established notions of beauty and turning fashion into art. Today a new generation of radical designers, among them Tao Kurihara and Jun Takahashi, is fast gaining acclaim. This spectacular book, written by a team of experts led by the eminent fashion historian Akiko Fukai, explores the distinct sensibility of Japanese design the uniqueness of its form, cut and fabric. Illustrated with over 250 photographs and sketches, Future Beauty is an authoritative and stylish guide to some of the world’s most expressive fashion.

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion

Fukai, Akiko

FRANKEL, SUSANNAH

Kurino, Hirofumi

Nie, Rie

Merrell Publishers

Die deutsche Mutter: Der lange Schatten eines Mythos

Europe

FISCHER Taschenbuch

Thomas Bernhard - Hab & Gut: Das Refugium des Dichters

Steiner, Dietmar

Pohl, Ronald

Schachinger, Christian

Fabjan, Peter

Brandstätter Verlag

At just under 350 pages, this lavishly illustrated reader addresses the crossover between fashion and art. Featuring work by Daniele Buetti, Sylvie Fleury, Yoko Ono, Pipilotti Rist, Erwin Wurm and others, it includes a photographic prelude by Georg Gatsas and an insert by Walter Pfeiffer.

Double Face: The Story about Fashion and Art from Mohammed to Warhol

Diederichsen, Diedrich

Gross, Peter

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

JRP|Ringier

Since the 1960s Dorothy Iannone has been making oversized figurative paintings populated with a psychedelic, utopian mix of characters, objects and ornamental themes. Her work, much of it created for, with or about her one-time lover Dieter Roth, developed in the context of the experimental 60s, and years later, her unbowed expressiveness and vitality continue to inspire a new generation, including the curators of the 2006 Whitney Biennial. In this monograph Kunsthalle Wien contrasts her work with that of Lee Lozano, whose work will be shown along with Iannone's at the museum this season. Iannone and Lozano are very different, but Iannone's broad-minded messages of love and Lozano's caustic, hard-core eruptions both use uncompromising styles that combine graphics and comics-like gesture with texts. Both artists also began their careers far ahead of their time and appear today to have been precursors of many contemporary trends.

Dorothy Iannone: Seek The Extremes!

Folie, Sabine

Individual Artists

Verlag Fur Moderne Kunst Nurnberg

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Books by Vinken, Barbara