Timothy W. Luke on the Travails of Trumpification

In his new book, The Travails of Trumpification, a series of critical essays written over the course of Donald J. Trump's presidency, Timothy W. Luke explores how the recent twists and turns in the civic life of the United States have precipitated a dangerous transformation of American political culture. Tim recently talked with Mark S. Weiner about the book and the current precarious state of U.S. politics.

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Reports from the Telos Student Seminars in Hungary and China

The Telos Student Seminars provide a forum for students around the world to engage with critical theory by discussing a common set of paired texts from Telos—one current essay and one pertinent essay from our archives. In our second cycle of seminars, we are discussing Huimin Jin’s “Cultural Self-Confidence and Constellated Community: An Extended Discussion of Some Speeches by Xi Jinping” (Telos 195, Summer 2021) and an excerpt from Cornelius Castoriadis’s “The Crisis of Western Societies” (Telos 53, Fall 1982). The following reports are from the Telos Student Seminars groups in Budapest, Hungary, and Nanjing, China. For more details about the Telos Student Seminars, including summaries of the two essays under discussion, click here.

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Report from the Telos Student Seminar in Israel

The Telos Student Seminars provide a forum for students around the world to engage with critical theory by discussing a common set of paired texts from Telos—one current essay and one pertinent essay from our archives. In our second cycle of seminars, we are discussing Huimin Jin’s “Cultural Self-Confidence and Constellated Community: An Extended Discussion of Some Speeches by Xi Jinping” (Telos 195, Summer 2021) and an excerpt from Cornelius Castoriadis’s “The Crisis of Western Societies” (Telos 53, Fall 1982). The following report is from the Telos Student Seminars group in Haifa, Israel. For more details about the Telos Student Seminars, including summaries of the two essays under discussion, click here.

Read the report here.

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The Telos Press Podcast: Vivian Lee on the Urban Space of Hong Kong Cinema

In today’s episode of the Telos Press Podcast, David Pan talks with Vivian P.Y. Lee about her article “The City in Flux: Toward an Urban Topology of Hong Kong Cinema,” from Telos 197 (Winter 2021). An excerpt of the article appears here. In their conversation they discuss Hong Kong’s urban space and its cinematic reinventions; the relationship between cinematic space and disappearance; the cinematic lineage of Patrick Lung and John Woo, and their different depictions of modern urban institutions and individual heroes; the use of nostalgia in film to reveal darker realities of the dystopian present; how post-Umbrella Movement films have created new forms of production and distribution; the present and future of Hong Kong cinema; and the ways in which filmmakers have turned the city of Hong Kong into a protagonist. If your university has an online subscription to Telos, you can read the full article at the Telos Online website. For non-subscribers, learn how your university can begin a subscription to Telos at our library recommendation page. Print copies of Telos 197 are available for purchase in our online store.

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The Telos Press Podcast: Xuesong Shao on Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Third Front Trilogy”

In today’s episode of the Telos Press Podcast, David Pan talks with Xuesong Shao about her article “Restoring and Reimagining Socialist-Built Cities: Wang Xiaoshuai’s ‘Third Front Trilogy,’” from Telos 197 (Winter 2021). An excerpt of the article appears here. In their conversation they discuss the history of the Third Front Movement in China; how migration is depicted in Wang Xiaoshuai’s Third Front trilogy; the article’s approach to the issue of nostalgia; the relationship of nostalgia and ruination in Red Amnesia; the ways in which Wang Xiaoshuai uses the male gaze to reinforce gender stereotypes; the personal versus the historical in Eleven Flowers and how elusive personal recollections align with the master narratives of the nation-state; and the different ways that Wang Xiaoshaui and Jia Zhangke depict places of memory and places of history. If your university has an online subscription to Telos, you can read the full article at the Telos Online website. For non-subscribers, learn how your university can begin a subscription to Telos at our library recommendation page. Print copies of Telos 197 are available for purchase in our online store.

Listen to the podcast here.

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The Telos Student Seminars: Call for Participants

The second Telos Student Seminar will pair an essay by Huimin Jin, “Cultural Self-Confidence and Constellated Community: An Extended Discussion of Some Speeches by Xi Jinping” (Telos 195, Summer 2021, pp. 93–113), with an excerpt from Cornelius Castoriadis, “The Crisis of Western Societies” (Telos 53, Fall 1982, pp. 17–28). Our virtual gathering will feature Prof. Jin, who will be joining us from China, as well as a scholar representing the views of Castoriadis.

Modeled on the study groups from which Telos first grew, yet reconceived for the digital age, the Telos Student Seminars (TSS) provide a forum for students around the world to engage with critical theory by discussing a common set of paired texts from Telos—one current essay, and one pertinent essay from our archives—to connect the past and present of the journal to its future. TSS also provides an opportunity for students to be published on TELOSscope.

We seek teachers and scholars from around the world under whose aegis TSS groups can meet and who can provide students with intellectual encouragement and support. An institutional library subscription is necessary. Would you like to join us? Contact tss@telospress.com.

For more information about the Telos Student Seminars, click here.

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