Juan Moreira: Romantic Outlaw,Liberal Hero

Since its appearance in 1879–1880, Juan Moreira has been read as an illiberal novel, casting its eponymous hero (the historical bodyguard and electoral henchman of the same name) as a metaphor for the plight of variously-defined subalterns in liberal and neoliberal Argentina, and a condemnation of the social order they brought about. Contrary to that assumption, and reading the novel in its original context (the newspaper La Patria Argentina, in the months leading up to the Buenos Aires rebellion that would settle the fate of Buenos Aires, and end the cycle of civil wars in Argentina), the article argues that Moreira should be read as an strictly liberal novel, inventing a version of the gaucho not as a premodern barbarian (i.e. Sarmiento’s version) but as the embodiment of a modern liberal notion of subject (and citizen, even citizen-in-arms), produced by a functional market economy and a modernizing state, whose descent into criminality is a consequence and a cautionary tale not of the evils of the liberal order, but of what for Gutiérrez was the illiberal (at the same time conservative and barbaric) embodied in his political opponents presidents Nicolás Avellaneda and Julio Argentino Roca.     

Hierarchy in America

Religious commitment, support for the military and free-market capitalism, and aversion to the welfare system, homosexuality and ‘big government’ are all attitudes widely shared among conservative Americans. Apparently unrelated, these views reflect an unrecognized but real ideological embrace of hierarchical understandings: to wit, power comes from above, exchange relations with powerful entities are the means for bettering one's circumstances and such relations are predicated on differences among parties. God, military and political leaders and the captains of industry all constitute personalized nodes of power to whom subordinating oneself offers chances for advancement. Government, by way of contrast, constitutes an impersonal force liable only to take someone's liberty and money and give no return. Adherence to hierarchical assumptions explains support for illiberal leaders in the US and beyond.     

America in denial

The recent publication of State of denial, by veteran Washington journalist Bob Woodward, created firestorm of controversy over its central claim that the Bush administration is in denial over the severity of the unfolding crisis in Iraq. But one of the most revealing aspects of the book is its portrayal of the American policymaking process as dysfunctional, incompetent and beset by personal rivalries and ambitions. Woodward's account of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq reveals that bureaucratic necrosis, cronyism and internecine warfare between the Pentagon and the State Department are now the signature features of the American government. Thus an alternative reading of Woodward's book suggests that American people are no longer in denial about Iraq, but have yet to reckon with the deeper problem: the deterioration of their foreign policy establishment.     

宝卷研究的重要成果——读《中国宝卷总目》《中国宝卷研究论集》

宝卷是承袭唐代的佛教俗讲传统,经宋至元末明初,逐渐演变而形成为一种广泛流传于寺院和民间的说唱文学,至清盛极而衰,其内容主要是宣讲佛道经书和劝善故事,也包括了大量世俗内容的民间传说,具有很强的宗教性和广泛的群众性。宝卷的宣讲活动和宝卷的辗转传抄活动,一直持续到20世纪80年代,还在我国一些地区(如江浙和甘肃)盛行。学界一般把宝卷看作是俗文学或民间文学。