Book: The City of Translation: Poetry and Ideology in Nineteenth-Century Colombia

José María Rodríguez García, "The City of Translation: Poetry and Ideology in Nineteenth-Century Colombia" (Palgrave Macmillan, August 2010):

http://us.macmillan.com/thecityoftranslation

Publisher's description: "The two principal questions that The City of Translation sets out to answer are: how did poetry, philology, catechesis, and literary translation legitimate a coterie of right-wing literati's [sic] rise to power in Colombia? And how did these men proceed to dismantle a long-standing liberal-democratic state without derogating basic constitutional freedoms? To answer those questions, José María Rodríguez García investigates the emergence, development, and decline of what he calls 'the reactionary city of translation' – a variation on, and a correction to, Ángel Rama's understanding of the nineteenth-century 'lettered city' as a primarily liberal and modernizing project. The City of Translation makes the tropes of 'translatio' the conceptual nucleus of a comprehensive analysis that cuts across academic disciplines, ranging from political philosophy and the history of concepts to the relationship of literature to religious doctrine and the law."

The last chapter of the book is titled "Conclusion: On Lettered Cities, Political Theologies, and the Writing of Lyric".

Endorsements: "Few books deserve to be described as necessary. This one does. Rodríguez García brings remarkable rigor and insight to his examination of the nineteenth-century debates that defined the first decades of the Colombian republic. Particularly significant are his penetrating reconstructions of conservative thought, a much neglected area since 'progressive' historians often seem more interested in finding antecedents for their own ideas rather than taking seriously the arguments of Catholic imbued anti-liberalism. He also brings remarkable insight to the ways that notions of proper grammatical usage and belle-lettriste literature were early marshaled to support conservative, hierarchical notions of society and government. In sum, this is an excellent book and a major contribution to nineteenth-century studies." (Nicolas Shumway, Rice University)

"The City of Translation elucidates the complex strategies of the reactionary Colombian political elite to usher in new legislation under the guise of a homogenizing national project. The author's keen insights on the pivotal role of lyrical production, translation (in theory and practice), and the mediating agency of the translator/lyricist in political objectives constitute an outstanding contribution to Latin American intellectual history, one that will compel us to expand our understanding of the term 'foundational fictions.'" (Carlos J. Alonso, Columbia University)

Spanish-born José María Rodríguez García is Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Duke University.

Phillip Blond's "ResPublica" think tank and Radical Orthodoxy

Check over at my personal blog for an assessment of the latest development in UK political theology: Phillip Blond, a former Senior Lecturer in theology and philosophy at the University of Cumbria, has been able to raise 1.5 million pounds to launch his own think tank, called "ResPublica":

www.erichkofmel.com/2009/12/phillip-blonds-respublica-think-tank.html

Blond has shot to the attention of the UK media only this year and has been hailed as Tory leader (and possible prime minister come May 2010) David Cameron's "philosopher king". ResPublica was launched on 26 November in the presence of Cameron, but the financial backers behind it remain anonymous. It stands to reason, though, that they are in support of the ideas associated with what Blond calls "Red Toryism".

Phillip Blond is a part of the Anglican Radical Orthodoxy movement. Radical Orthodoxy set out, hardly ten years ago, from Cambridge's Peterhouse College to renew the Church of England. Already the current Archbishop of Canterbury, and head of the Anglican community, Rowan Williams, is said to be an adherent of Radical Orthodoxy. And now the movement has gained influence over Tory policy and the likely next prime minister. Radical-orthodox political theology has a chance to become for the UK what black liberation theology arguably has become under Barack Obama in the US.

CFP: Culture Wars in the United States

Conference of the Center for United States Studies, Raoul Dandurand Chair, University of Québec at Montreal, Canada, 14 October 2010

www.dandurand.uqam.ca

Call for papers: "Culture Wars in the United States: The Politics of Religious Conservatism in the Obama Era"

Theme: During the Republican Party's national convention in 1992, the ultraconservative politician Pat Buchanan claimed that a "culture war" was raging in the US. He saw it as a fight to define the American people's national identity – what America signifies as a society, what Americans were in the past, what they are today, and what they will become in future. In fact, the culture war has been the hobbyhorse of many US social and political actors, or culture warriors, since the 1970s. In their view, the secular, liberal elites have seized power in the US and are trying to destroy the spiritual foundations of American society. In response, the culture warriors are trying by all possible means to persuade Americans and their elected representatives to make the favourite issues of religious conservatives and the Christian Right the focal point of political debate.

There are several types of culture warriors, and they are waging a variety of "wars". Culture warriors can include the US President himself, as when George W. Bush proposed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. They also include judges who insist on having the Ten Commandments embroidered on their robes, pastors who encourage Christian pre-teens to reject homosexuality, bloggers who condemn nudity in video games, and media personalities like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck who try to discredit anti-war groups, feminists, hip-hop artists, and others.

The first few months of Barack Obama's presidency have shown that the culture wars continue unabated (a proposal to ban gay marriage in California was passed on the same day Obama was elected; in May 2009, a pro-life activist murdered a doctor who performed late-term abortions, etc.). Accordingly, the goal of this conference is to generate a deeper understanding of culture wars and their impact on US society and policies.

The organizers are promoting a multidisciplinary approach. They are therefore inviting scholars from a broad range of disciplines – political scientists, historians, specialists in political communication, linguists, sociologists, philosophers, religious studies experts, etc. – to participate.

Participants will be invited to contribute their papers for publication in a collection (book or special issue of a peer-reviewed journal) after the conference.

Research angles and themes (not exhaustive): Concepts and theories pertaining to culture wars, religious conservatism, and the Christian Right in the US; Linkages between religion, conservatism, and politics in the US; Case studies of actors in the culture wars; Analysis of culture warriors' discourses; Culture war issues (gay marriage, abortion, stem cell research, control of firearms, death penalty, pornography, separation of church/religion and state/politics, etc.); History of culture wars, religious conservatism, and the Christian Right in the US (context of emergence, changes over time); Comparative studies on different types of religious conservatism (with reference to the US case); Political parties and culture wars in the US; Role of left-wing actors (feminist, pro-gay-marriage, pro-choice groups, etc.) in culture wars; Representations of culture wars in popular culture (movies, cartoons, video games, advertising, TV series, novels, etc.); Communication, political and legislative strategies of culture war actors; Analyses of public opinion polls on culture wars; Electoral impacts of culture wars; Local and regional aspects of culture wars; Media coverage of culture wars; International perceptions of culture wars, religious conservatism, and the Christian Right in the United States.

Proposals should be a maximum of 300 words long and should include the following: family name(s) and first name(s) of author(s)/collaborator(s); title(s), function(s), and home institution(s); contact information (mailing address, telephone number, e-mail); paper title, research question, and main arguments and outline of underlying analytical framework. Proposals (and the papers themselves) may be in English or French.

A scientific review committee will evaluate proposals and will announce the selected papers in mid-March 2010.

Please send your proposal by e-mail (in a Word attachment) to Catherine Goulet-Cloutier: goulet-cloutier.catherine@uqam.ca

Deadline for proposals (paper abstracts): 15 January 2010

For information about the conference, contact Prof Frédérick Gagnon: gagnon.frederick@uqam.ca

Note: After the conference, the organizers will ask participants to send them a text for publication in a collection.

Political theology "to the right of God"

Those speaking (reading) German may be interested in an article on the links between the Christian right (in Europe) and political right-wing extremism that appeared in this week's edition of the (notoriously anti-Christian) German magazine “Spiegel”:

www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,607625,00.html

The argument, in the words of the Vicar General of the Society of St. Pius X, goes that conservatism today has to be political theology (“politische Theologie”) in order to break the dominance of the left and liberalism, thereby casting the cultural hegemony of Islam and the Islamic takeover of urban areas in Western Europe as the enemy that has to be fought off. A conservative counter-revolution, he argues, is impossible without the rediscovery of religion as a public matter, which has to be spiritually based on the Catholic church.

For more on conservatism and political theology, see this 2007 contribution to the political extreme-right publication "Junge Freiheit":

www.jf-archiv.de/archiv07/200723060158.htm

Which essay refers to a little-known political theologian, Nicolás Gómez Dávila:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s_G%C3%B3mez_D%C3%A1vila

The central outlet of the proponents of such a political theology, according to the "Spiegel", is a website (“Catholic news”):

www.kreuz.net

There to be found is, for example, a scathing criticism of the "new political theology" of J.B. Metz:

www.kreuz.net/article.7630.html