Antimodernism

Lietuvos filosofijos ir kultūrologijos korfėjaus prof. A. Uždavinio mintys apie demonišką postmoderizmo esmę, kosmoso desakralizaciją ir perversijos išaukštinimą Tradicijos akimis

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Profesor Algis Uždavinys on demonic nature of Postmodernism as directed desacralization of the Cosmos and divination of perversion, in the perspective of the Tradition

The ultramontane mobilization of the diocese of Rottenburg during the episcopacy of Bishop Keppler (1899-1925)
Published in: Sebastian Holzbrecher/Torsten W. Müller (Hg.), Kirchliches Leben im Wandel der Zeiten. Perspektiven und Beiträge der (mittel-)deutschen Kirchengeschichtsschreibung. Festschrift für Josef Pilvousek (Erfurter Theologische Studien 104), Würzburg 2013, 103-120.

The article problematizes the contemporary and mostly affirmative
understanding of affective processes of outrage and excess in affect theories by outlining a genealogy from the “Conservative Revolution” (Oswald Spengler, Ernst Junger) to recent works of Peter Sloterdijk as well as Michael Hardt and Toni Negri. All the different approaches have argumentative intersections in their understanding of the relation between affectivity and corporeality: Bodies and affective outrages are emancipatory forces of opposition and change. Affective forces are considered to challenge the oppressive hegemonic culture and its rationality. Creative forces, the force of life and its potential, affective outrage and excess as such gain esteem. It is Friedrich Nietzsches theory of power which is the link between these theories. The genealogy highlights the simultaneity and dissimultaneity of affect control and affective outrages in modern and contemporary, conservative or rather new right and leftist affect theories and demonstrates the anti-modern tendencies in discursive figures of and political fascinations with outrage and excess.

The relationship between literature and anti industrial criticism is very old. From the very begining of the Industrial Revolution, unrest suffered by many writers to the transformations motivated by the industry was constant: the English Romantic poets, Thoreau, Baudelaire, Dostoevsky, the Spanish literature of the late nineteenth century, etc., showed in their work mistrust and suspicion to the modernization process. In Italian literature there are numerous examples of anti-industrial criticism, and one of them was Pier Paolo Pasolini. Although never taken seriously, this aspect of his criticism was essential throughout his life, capturing it in numerous articles, interviews and books, from 1958 to the Scritti corsari and Lettere luterane at the end of his life. Pasolini believed that consumer-industrial society was a kind of fascism lot worse than the classical fascism, and accused it of having produced an anthropological mutation in the Italian people, destroying for ever the ancient preindustrial and peasant culture.

La relación entre la literatura  y la crítica antiindustrial es muy longeva. Desde los orígenes mismos de la Revolución Industrial el desasosiego padecido por muchos escritores ante las transformaciones motivadas por la industria fue constante: los poetas románticos ingleses, Thoreau, Baudelaire, Dostoievski, la literatura española de finales del siglo XIX, etc., mostraron en su obra desconfianza y recelo ante el proceso modernizador. En la literatura italiana existen numerosos ejemplos de crítica antiindustrial, y uno de ellos fue el de Pier Paolo Pasolini. Aunque nunca se ha tomado muy en serio, este aspecto de su crítica fue fundamental a lo largo de toda su vida, plasmándolo en numerosos artículos, entrevistas y libros desde 1958 hasta Scritti corsari y Lettere luterane al final de su vida. Pasolini consideraba que la sociedad industrial y de consumo constituía un fascismo mucho peor que el fascismo clásico, y le acusaba de haber producido una mutación antropológica en el pueblo italiano, destruyendo para siempre la milenaria cultura campesina y preindustrial.

Miközben a modernséggel mint divergens társadalmi és kulturális jelenséggel is indokolják az I. világháború kitörését, illetve négyéves működtetését, addig független tényként kezel-jük, hogy a békéért kiálló római pápák (X. Piusz és XV. Benedek) kitartó küzdelmet folytattak az úgynevezett (teológiai) modernizmussal szemben. Ennek a küzdelemnek a legismertebb szimbóluma az 1910-ben bevezetett Antimodernista eskü, amely egészen 1967-ig érvényben volt kisebb-nagyobb megszorításokkal. Az eskü szövegének sajátos retorikája van, amely részben éppen a háború diskurzusába illeszkedik. Tanulmányomban ennek a retorikai jellegzetességnek és az ezt kontextualizáló antimodernista törekvéseknek eredtem a nyomába azért, hogy a modernség és a háború kapcsolatát a „konzervatív” és a „haladó” egyházi gondolkodás viszonyával párba állítva árnyaltabban láthassuk az első világháború és a katolikus egyház dialógusát. Az előadás központi kérdését így is megfogalmazhatjuk tehát: a háborúellenes egyházi retorikát nem gyöngítette-e meg az az első pillantásra ettől független kifejezésmód, amely az antimodernizmus egyházi mozgalmát jellemezte?

El pensador tradicionalista Julius Evola (1898-1974) ha sido, desde los años '70, objeto de una considerable cantidad de estudios. Filósofos como Umberto Eco, historiadores como Renzo de Felice y politólogos como Norberto Bobbio se refirieron a este aristócrata italiano y ahondaron en sus relaciones personales e intelectuales con el régimen fascista, sus vínculos con los movimientos de la "derecha radical" en la posguerra, sus inclinaciones esotéricas y sus teorías racistas y antisemitas. Otros aspectos recibieron una atención menor, como su carácter "antimoderno". Este rasgo parece evidente en un autor que adoptó abiertamente esta postura en una época temprana y la sostuvo durante su carrera de pubblicista, por no mencionar que su obra más explorada se titula Rivolta contro il Mondo Moderno (1934). 
Sin embargo, el uso de esta categoría no está exento de aspecto problemáticos. Por un lado, ¿puede un escritor que se proclama antimoderno ser visto parte de una corriente como el fascismo, el cual ha sido considerado "moderno" y hasta "revolucionario" por parte de especialistas como George Mosse y Emilio Gentile? Por el otro, ¿no podría complejizarse la noción de "antimodernidad" a partir de este tradicionalista italiano, quien presenta particularidades respecto de otros exponentes de la contrarrevolución como Joseph de Maistre y Juan Donoso Cortés? Para responder estos y otros interrogantes, este trabajo retomará algunas de las reflexiones presentadas por la historiografía sobre el pensamiento reaccionario en Europa para repensar el lugar de Julius Evola dentro de la familia de las Derechas.

Das Werk des schweizerischen Schriftstellers Meinrad Inglin (1893-1971) wurde bislang nur in den literaturgeschichtlichen Grenzen seines schweizerischen Heimatlandes untersucht. Diese Studien hingegen stellt sein Schaffen in den Kontext eines europäischen Krisenbewusstseins und berücksichtigt in der Untersuchung der Entwicklungslinien innerhalb des Gesamtwerks nicht nur biographische und poetologische, sondern auch soziokulturelle und philosophische Hintergründe. In der Analyse der künstlerischen Reaktion Inglins auf epochale Phänomene, wie den Umbruch zur Moderne, den Weltkriegsschock und die ökologischen Folgen kapitalistischer Wachstumswut, wird dabei eine entscheidende Wende erkennbar, die etwa um 1930 zu lokalisieren ist. Diese markiert einen Umbruch von einem radikal antimodernen und zivilisationsfeindlichen Eskapismus zu einem Versuch einer konstruktiven Kulturkritik. Dieser Umbruch ist zukunftsweisend und weist weit über jede nationale Beschränkung hinaus.

This article argues that the case of religious authority within Orthodox Judaism is an important counterexample to the broader and understudied developments in American religion during the final decades of the twentieth century. Using an array of untapped primary sources and drawing on themes addressed by scholars of American religious history and modern Jewish history, this article demonstrates how Orthodox Jewish elites used “approximational heresies” to police their faith community. In so doing, Orthodox leaders furnished “indicators” of apostasy that were unknown in previous epochs and served to stand in for traditional types that proved otherwise insufficient to counteract new trends in modern life and culture. Orthodox Jewish “antimodernism” was animated by a need to demonstrate what was “in” and what was “out” of bounds as well as by the emergence of a triumphalism that was unique among American faiths. Likewise, the rank-and-file abided because they either agreed with these measures or feared becoming “outsiders.” This outlook contrasts with the attitudes of other religious groups—on the “left” and the “right”—that absorbed a spirit of “inclusiveness” and, therefore, eschewed heresy hunting and the boldness evinced by Orthodox elites during this period. The article concludes that the pervasiveness of this counterculture among the Orthodox Jewish community was so powerful that it, counterintuitively, introduced the strategies of the antimodernists to the American-acculturated, so-called Modern Orthodox community.

Vatican II a très vite fait l'objet d'une contestation proprement théologique. SI les auteurs ne sont pas des professionnels de la théologie, ils développent un discours dont la dimension contestatrice s'accentue avec le temps. Leur approche historique et herméneutique conduit à voir en Vatican II un ralliement à la modernité et au modernisme.

After the end of the Second World War,
Julius Evola returned to Italy to offer “orientamenti”
to the “men who still stand
amongst the ruins”. From his Roman
apartment, this aristocrat acted as a pubblicista,
spreading his traditionalist ideas
through books and journals. One of his
strategies consisted in differentiating himself
from the fallen regimes: discussions
held years before with “official” intellectuals
were recovered by Evola to prove the
superiority of his doctrine. In this fashion,
he stated that his racism was “spiritualist”
instead of “materialist” and “biologicist”,
implying that it should be separated from
the “racial scientists”, the persecutions
and the extermination camps. However,
the distinction had clear limits: the
“magical Baron” not only upheld his
racist worldview, but also reaffirmed his
deep-held antisemitism and adopted contradictory
positions when considering the
Holocaust. These ambiguities were reflected
on the uses that, beginning in the 80’s,
some circles linked with the enduring
Right-wing Argentinian nationalism made
of Evola. The circulation of his ideas lead
to the appearance of El Fortín, the first
local publication which proclaimed itself
“evolian”. From its pages, the contributors
articulated a “Traditional and alternative”
view on domestic politics and the international
arena. Through this case, this article
will scrutinize how Evola was received
by his Argentinian followers and will take
into account, at the same time, how racism,
antisemitism and negationism developed
in end-of-century nationalism.

Around 1900, discourses on a so-called "new nobility" spread among intellectuals in the German Empire. These discourses aimed to create a new elite, replacing the "historical" nobility. How did the "old" nobility react  to this challange? The answer given by the journal "Deutsches Adelsblatt" was clear: It rejected the concept of a "new nobility" and tried to establish the "old" one as a mentaly renewed "social aristocracy".

The Canadian thinker Marshall McLuhan is now widely recognized as one of the great theorists and commentators on modernity in the post-1945 period. Yet he himself was not a modernist in any simple sense of the word. He consistently engaged with modernity, but did so in order to undermine it in favour of a pre-modern conception of the world inspired by his intense relationship with Catholicism. McLuhan was, in fact, an arch antimodernist, which makes his role as an " expert " on technological modernity and education within Bill Davis' self-consciously progressive 1960s Ontario (Canada) Department of Education a deeply ironic one. In this paper, I use that paradoxical relationship to bring out the full complexity of McLuhan's interconnected ideas on modernity, antimodernity, Catholicism, and school reform, while shedding light on his unique status as a public intellectual during Canada's 1960s. I end by suggesting that both McLuhan's and Davis' approaches to reform constituted influential (and troubling) steps toward neoliberalism in contemporary education.

The Italian bishops' reports in observance of Pius X's directions included in the encyclical Pascendi that have been found until now are 47. The essay sights to analyze the answers of the Italian episcopacy to the Pope's order to monitor the presence of Modernism in their dioceses and to explain the reasons of the exiguous number of reports sent to the Holy See. In the compliant forms drafted by the bishops the 'multiform heresy' was diligently condemned but at the same time said to be far from being present in the diocesan territory. Both the fear to convey the suspect of being someway modernist and the firm belief of the danger represented by the dissemination of modernist ideas are reflected in the Italian bishops' Pascendi reports.

Since 1913 Mgr. Umberto Benigni sought to obtain a canonical approval of the Sodalitium pianum, a formal commendation that was several times procrastinated because of the presence of «some controversial sides» in the statutes. Two days later Pius X’s death Benigni terminated the organization that was secretly re-established «on the simple basis of a friendly agreement». The Sodalitium pianum kept on exercising a «deaf influence» against Benedict XV until 8 December 1921, when Benigni was obligated by the Congregation of Council to declare «permanently dead the moribund Sodalizio piano». Nonetheless, its phantom continued to linger during Achille Ratti’s pontificate.

The display of a “family crest” to signal family identity is prevalent in the contemporary United States. However, during the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, many American commentators perceived the widespread use of heraldry by the high bourgeoisie as at best a mark of social pretension and at worst a symptom of an un-American predilection for aristocracy. Over the course of a century, heraldic entrepreneurs sought to broaden the market for family crests and in doing so Americanized heraldic practice. The early projects of Albert Welles, Frank Allaben and Frances M. Smith linked heraldry with new approaches to genealogical research and encouraged its use by a broad cross section of American society. In the late twentieth century, entrepreneur Gary Halbert sold millions of heraldic mementos that epitomized the modern commodification of history and identity. The result of a century of marketing is an American heraldry that is both more accessible than its European antecedents and less closely tied to verifiable genealogical relationships.

The analysis of intercultural aspects of Julius Langbehns 'Rembrandt as Educator'
(Rembrandt als Erzieher) shows, how intracultural changes in the context of the
modernization process are projected on an intercultural level in order to defend traditional identity constructions. This strategy of defense is also following imperialistic principles. Compared with modes of reaction on today’s globalization process, there are some decisive parallels, so that it seems indispensable to subsume failures of the intercultural dialogue and strategies of exclusion observable in Langbehn’s text under the research paradigm of interculturalism which up to now has largely been oriented towards the present.

"In this symposium I will compare the historiographic methodologies that appeared in Italy at the beginning of the eighties with the opposite postmodernists theories sustained by critics like Benjamin Buchloch.
The so-called “Return to painting” in Italy, including labels like “Transavanguardia”, tried to rehabilitate figures usually linked with anti-avantgardism and reactionarism, like Giorgio De Chirico after his disengagement with Surrealists, or Mario Sironi, who influenced Fascist style.
Italian critics associated with neo-figurative tendencies rejected as outdated any ideological judgement regarding realistic painting and its claims to a national style, particularly those derived from the historicistic interpretation adopted by Giulio Carlo Argan, the most influential contemporary art historian in Italy after 1945.
The exhibitions held after 1979, like “La Pittura Metafisica” or “Anni Venti”, proposed a new vision to re-evaluate Metafisica’s role, in opposition to Futurism’s supremacy based on an avanguardistic progression.
This effort to revise the political reactionary engagement of figures like Sironi or De Chirico, was preceded by the ex-Communist historian Renzo De Felice’s broadly reconciliatory approach toward Fascism in his lengthy biography of Mussolini.
At the same time, Communist Party, leaded by Enrico Berlinguer, began a renovating political strategy to emancipate itself from totalitarian policy of U.S.S.R. This change had a correspondent approach among art critics and historians close to the Party that culminated in the “Biennale del Dissenso” (1977) where artists persecuted by the sovietic regime can exposed their banished works.
The Revisionist tendency -and its art-historical version- deeply influenced Jean Clair, who was, during the seventies, close to italian critics like Luigi Carluccio and who organized Les Réalismes (1981), the most fervent attempt to eliminate the “avant-garde” category in historical methodology.
From the opposite side, Buchloch accused Clair of being a “new reactionary anti-modernist” and promoting an approach to the arts “outside the historical and political context”.
Buchloch’s Postmodern thought aimed primarily to revise Greenberg’s Modernism while, at the same time, reaffirming some of its aspects (such as the distinction between the avant-garde and kitsch) thus contradicting Clair’s theory.
In placing Greenberg’s theory at the center of Postmodernism’s change, Buchloh didn’t consider the possibility of other historical legacies in different political contexts such as Italy or France."

Camille Mauclair (1872-1945) est l’un des auteurs qui comptent non seulement parmi les plus prolifiques mais aussi parmi les plus lus de son temps. S’il a su puiser dans toutes les occasions offertes par la Troisième République des lettres, investissant sa curiosité des débuts dans différents genres, c’est toutefois en tant que critique d’art qu’il s’affirme professionnellement. Ce travail de recherche retrace le parcours professionnel et intellectuel de Mauclair, des années modernistes du symbolisme aux années de l’entre-deux-guerres, et explique à travers l’histoire des idées comment un auteur internationaliste a placé la question nationale au cœur de son débat et est progressivement devenu un pôle de conservatisme et de réaction. Sa perception d’un art national basé sur le XVIIIe siècle inaugure une histoire de l’art vulgarisatrice et nationaliste. La notion de crise devient pout lui une clé pour la compréhension du système de l’art qui l’entoure. La radicalisation de ses thèses l’amènera à une collaboration déterminante avec l’homme influent de l’extrême-droite François Coty et cette collaboration fera de Mauclair un pamphlétaire de l’art. Au début de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, le critique adhère à la presse collaborationniste et ses choix réactionnaires et antisémites lui coûteront la postérité.

The documents published within this essay regard the relationship between Romolo Murri, the leader of the first Italian Christian democracy, and Antonio Agliardi, one of the few among the members of the Sacred College of Cardinals, sympathetic with the position of the “democratic priest”. Due to the letters between the two men and the documents of the Roman Curia, the article analyzes the progressive incomprehension between Murri, and the young militants around him, and the official position of the Catholic Church.

Resumen: La herencia baudelaireana-entendida no solamente como la lectura de la obra y la figura del autor de Les fleurs du mal, sino también como sus efectos sobre las nuevas gene-raciones literarias y sobre la vida cultural en sentido amplio-es un tópico recurrente en las reflexiones en torno a la literatura tanto de Maurice Barrès como de Charles Maurras. Para estas figuras fundacionales del nacionalismo francés, Baudelaire constituye la expresión de un «romanticismo» estre-chamente ligado con la «enferme-dad» y la «decadencia» propias de la modernidad, que demanda, sin embargo , posicionamientos diversos, casi opuestos. Baudelaire es mucho más que una referencia literaria, y se convierte en la cifra o contraseña que dispara toda una serie de considera-ciones en torno al clasicismo, el romanticismo, la autonomía literaria, la oposición nacionalismo / cosmopo-litismo, el futuro de Europa, la integridad del «yo» y la valoración de las tradiciones antigua y moderna.

Abstract: The Baudelairean heritage-understood not only as the reading of the work and the life of the author of Les Fleurs du mal, but also as its effects on the new literary generations and on cultural life in a broad sense-is a recurring topic in the reflections about literature of both Maurice Barrès and Charles Maurras. For these found-ational figures of French nationalism, Baudelaire is the expression of a «romanticism» closely linked to modernity's «disease» and «decadence». But the name «Baudelaire» demands diverse, almost opposite positions. Baudelaire is much more than a literary reference, and becomes the trigger of all sort of considerations around classicism, romanticism, literary autonomy, the opposition nationalism /cosmopolitanism, the future of Europe, the integrity of the self and the relation between ancient and modern traditions.

Este artigo tem como objetivo visualizar a formacao de um grupo catolico brasileiro, o grupo que se forma em torno de Plinio Correa de Oliveira e sua suposta identidade “antimoderna”. Alem de buscar rapidamente circunscrever o conceito de modernidade e historicizar sobre a genese do grupo e de suas principais ideias, aponta algumas possibilidades teoricas para a leitura do aspecto identitario. O texto reflete pesquisa de mestrado intitulada “Entre a verdade e a seducao: um estudo sobre a inflexao catolica ‘antimoderna’ no Brasil”, que esta sendo realizado junto ao Programa de Pos-graduacao em Ciencia da Religiao da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora.Palavras-chave: Modernidade; Catolicismo; Identidade.ABSTRACTThis article aims at visualising the formation of a Brazilian catholic group, that around Plinio Correa de Oliveira and his alleged ‘anti-modern’ identity. After a brief consideration of the concept of modernity and a short background of the group formation and its main ideas...

The aim of the hole volume is to analyze the ‘practical implementation’ of the anti-modernist measures of Pius X’s encyclical Pascendi (September 8, 1907) in the Roman Catholic Church. For the first time, the reports on Modernism produced by bishops and religious orders – and scattered in the Roman archives – are studied and compared, offering the reader an international picture of the widespread effect of anti-modernism until 1914 and, at least indirectly, of the general situation of the Catholic Church at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the same time, the various local interpretations and strategies come into focus, as well as the somewhat competition-driven inner-curial handling of the reports.

In its normative part the encyclical Pascendi extended to the religious orders the obligation to send a report every three years. The exiguous number of reports found reflects partially the situation of the religious institutes towards Modernism, and highlights their scarce attention to the Congregation for Religious despite the fame of committed anti-modernist of its prefect, the cardinal Vives i Tutó.

U članku se analiziraju dela "Čujte Srbi!" Rudolfa Arčibalda Rajsa i "Crnogorski čovjek" Gerharda Gezemana kao primeri međuratnog reakcionarnog modernizma. U njihovom „uvezenom“ antimodernizmu, balkanske tradicije su preosmišljene kao potencijalni izvor regeneracije evropskog političkog i društvenog sistema. Pozajmljujući od romantičarske idealizacije folklora i eskapističke fascinacije egzotičnim predmodernim društvima, ove dve konzervativne revitalizacije karakteroloških studija takođe zadržavaju mnoge odlike modernističkog diskursa. Iako ovi tekstovi dekonstruišu prethodno dominantnu sliku istorijskog napretka kao evropeizacije Srbije i Crne Gore, oni istovremeno konstruišu statičnu sliku srpsko-crnogorskog društva, nesposobnog da evoluira od svojih predmodernih korena

«La période inscrite entre les deux siècles, le XIXe et le XXe, a été décrite comme celle de crises diverses : du roman, de l’humanisme, des valeurs symbolistes, de la pensée française...» écrivent très justement Géraldi Leroy et Julie Bertrand-Sabiani dans La Vie littéraire à la Belle Époque. Et ils ajoutent un peu plus loin, avec non moins de pertinence : «Une ligne de partage subsiste cependant à la veille de la Grande Guerre entre les tenants d’une renaissance classique – voire d’un classicisme moderne – et ceux de la modernité qui s’aventurent en des directions diverses : futurisme, simultanéisme, dramatisme, orphisme, art cérébriste, etc., autant de chapelles opposées les unes aux autres par de fréquentes polémiques.»
Crise, donc, et ligne de partage : on se propose ici de mettre en rapport l’un avec l’autre ces deux constats fondamentaux et de montrer comment il revint à la crise elle-même de produire cette bipolarité de l’arrière-garde et de l’avant-garde. Peut-on en effet penser les avant-gardes européennes du début du XXe siècle sans les relier à une crise plus générale que traversait à l’époque la littérature? Le terme de crise est employé pendant toute la période, depuis 1897, année de la «crise de vers» annoncée par Stéphane Mallarmé, jusqu’à 1924, quand Jacques Rivière proclame la «crise du concept de littérature». Mais il faudrait citer aussi «La Crise de la critique» de Gaston Sauvebois en 1911 et «la crise de l’esprit» déplorée par Paul Valéry en 1919. Les poètes, les critiques, les écrivains ont donc longtemps chanté le temps des crises.

Vortrag anläßlich der Fachtagung Martin Heideggers „Schwarze Hefte“. Ideologieanfälligkeit der Intellektuellen . 9.‐11. Dezember 2015, Universität Freiburg:
https://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/de/veranstaltungen/konferenzen/heideggers-schwarze-hefte