Old Email Archive

digest 2005-11-16 #001.txt

litsci-l-digest      Wednesday, November 16 2005      Volume 01 : Number
127



In this issue:

     War and Panic
     URL for new volume on Literature and Science
     Call for Proposals: Narrative Matters 2006

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2005 16:53:54 -0500
From: "Orion Anderson" 
Subject: War and Panic

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

- ------=_NextPart_000_0185_01C5DF04.D7D7BB30
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

WAR AND PANIC

by Richard A. Koenigsberg


War arises as a response to panic; fear of penetration; anxiety that
one's
nation might disintegrate. War is undertaken to quell anxiety: Do unto
others before they can do unto you. Warfare seeks to reaffirm the
invulnerability of the body politic. 

Acts of war are designed to create "shock and awe:" to make manifest the
power of one's nation. Warfare unleashes and releases destructive energy
that had been latent. Acts of massive destruction constitute a
demonstration
of collective virility. 

War is designed to produce shock and awe--not only in the mind and heart
of
the designated enemy, but also in the minds and hearts of one's own
people.
Warfare seeks to establish that one's nation still exists: "And the
rockets
red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that
our
flag was still there." 

Panic inspires and intensifies patriotism as people bind to one another
and
their leaders. People bind to the nation and its leaders in the
expectation
that they will obtain protection. Citizens imagine that their leaders
are
hovering over them--like God in heaven. People idealize and submit to
the
nation and its leaders in return for the protection that they imagine is
being provided. 

As panic diminishes, people begin to awaken from the nightmare of
history.
Dangers that seemed substantial and imminent seem less real. Thus begins
the
process of recollection in tranquility. As reflection begins,
ambivalence
toward leaders can become overt. It becomes possible to express doubt
and
anger toward those who required submission as a precondition for
protection.



  _____  

Dr. Richard Koenigsberg's groundbreaking writings on the Psychology of
War
are available as on-line publications. Papers currently available
include: 

AS THE SOLDIER DIES, SO DOES THE NATION COME ALIVE
AZTEC WARFARE, WESTERN WARFARE
DYING FOR ONE'S COUNTRY
VIRILITY AND SLAUGHTER



PLEASE CLICK
 HERE or visit:

http://home.earthlink.net/~libraryofsocialscience/online_pubs.htm 
 


  _____  


When the fantasy of a good nation under threat pervades the atmosphere
of
society, criticism of the nation and its leaders seems impossible.
People
are consumed by the fury of nationalistic fervor. As long as leaders are
contained within the aura of a sacred object under siege, leaders can
require submission and obedience. 

When threats no longer seem imminent, anxiety subsides and sober
reflection
becomes possible. The nation has survived. The climate of hysteria cools
off
a bit. The autonomous self begins to challenge the self that had
embraced
submission. People scratch their heads. What had been going on? 

Perhaps the condition of panic that generates war is most intense or
acute
for a nation's political leaders. Should a threat become reality, the
leader
will be held responsible. Should the nation be attacked and wounded
under
the watch of the leader, he will forever be remembered in the history
books.
War is undertaken based on fear of shame or humiliation. Warfare is
motivated by the leaders' desire to avoid eternal shame, a negative form
of
immortality. 

Threats to the invulnerability of the nation produce anxiety, but also
exhilaration. Anxiety itself is a form of exhilaration. Shared anxiety
functions to reunite the fragmented (multicultural) body politic. People
imagine they are "at one" with one another. The population bonds
together in
order to punish the enemy, exact revenge, and to produce a display of
prowess. 

In the war atmosphere, the idea of the country engulfs society and
paralyzes
thought. The collective body focuses upon punishing someone for wounds
the
nation has suffered, and protecting itself by preventing other acts that
might cause death and/or humiliation. The people, identifying themselves
as
a nation, seek to recover a sense of invulnerability by killing the
designated enemy. 

As panic subsides--and national omnipotence proves to be an
illusion--awakening begins. What happened? Why did this occur? Leaders
that
seemed indispensable begin to lose their aura of invincibility. Facts
can be
viewed in a new light. The facts are not different, but anxiety is less
intense, as the weight of the nation no longer crushes peoples'
thoughts. 

It's not that people know something that they did not know before. What
becomes knowable was known all along, but repressed. "The intellect is
soft," Freud said, "but it will not rest until it has obtained a
hearing."
Gradually, ambivalence emerges toward those who compelled submission.
The
self awakens to pose questions: What were we afraid of? Why did we give
in
so easily? Why were we so willing to abandon our freedom and autonomy? 


Orion Anderson
email: oanderson@ideologiesofwar.com 


------------------------------

Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 09:39:17 +0000
From: "Carol Colatrella" 
Subject: URL for new volume on Literature and Science

Dear Carol Colatrella,

I am sorry I did not communicate earlier the publication of Revista
Canaria 
de Estudios Ingleses, 50 (April 2005), containing a sizeable -and
hopefully 
substantial- collection of essays examining the relationship between 
"Literature and Science". The full index is displayed at the following
url

http://webpages.ull.es/users/rceing/current.html 



Would you please inform members of SLSA by your mail-list?



Thank you so much.

All the best for Amsterdam 2006.



Tomas Monterrey (jmonterr@ull.es)


- -
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls 

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 15:19:50 -0500
From: "Orion Anderson" 
Subject: Call for Proposals: Narrative Matters 2006


CALL FOR PROPOSALS


=20



NARRATIVE MATTERS 2006: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Narrative
Research, Perspectives, Approaches, and Issues Across the Humanities and
Social Sciences


THEME: The Storied Nature of Human Experience: Fact and Fiction

DATES: May. 25-27, 2006    =20
DEADLINE for proposals: Dec. 15, 2005
LOCATION: Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Dr. Robyn Fivush, Samuel Chandler Dobbs Professor of
Psychology, Emory University, "Memory and Narrative, Self and Voice;" R.
Murray Schafer, Composer, "And Wolf Shall Inherit the Moon: The =
collective
creation of a myth;" Bob Barton, Storyteller, "Making Stories Happen"

The inaugural Narrative Matters conference in 2002 drew 200 =
participants;
the second in 2004 increased to 300. We now are calling for papers and
proposals for the third conference in 2006. Our aim is to provide a =
forum
for conversation among theorists, students, researchers, and =
practitioners
using narrative perspectives in such diverse fields as literature, the
social sciences, education, journalism, healthcare, psychology, history,
=
and
the fine arts.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in narrative modes =
of
thought and expression. The Narrative Turn has influenced the =
humanities,
the social sciences, and the health sciences. The third Narrative =
Matters
conference, to be held at Acadia in 2006, will explore current ideas =
about
narrative - or story - in various aspects of human experience.

Proposals are invited for papers, presentations, symposia or posters on
=
a
variety of topics from narrative in fiction to narrative modes of
understanding human experience. We welcome proposals for papers and =
panels
on topics that might include (but are not limited to) the following:

*	The place of story in education, literature, politics, religion and
the media=20

*	Narrative and diversity (e.g., culture, ethnicity, gender, age)=20

*	Collecting and analyzing stories as data in qualitative research=20

*	Narrative perspectives on memory, identity, and community=20

*	Narratives in therapeutic processes and relationships=20

*	Narratives of place=20

Proposals, and the presentations themselves, can be in either English or
French. Les propositions, ainsi que les communications elles-m=EAmes, =
peuvent
=EAtre en anglais ou en fran=E7ais.



PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL.

 
http://narrativematters.com/dist.html 

For More Information:

Pat O'Neill
Phone: (902) 542-7533
E-mail:   narr-mat06@acadiu.ca 
 =20

=20


------------------------------

End of litsci-l-digest V1 #127
******************************

-
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls