Pod Stalinem : field notes from another modernity

Sayer, Derek (2013) Pod Stalinem : field notes from another modernity. Journal of Classical Sociology, 13 (1). pp. 87-103. ISSN 1468-795X

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Abstract

David Frisby’s work was a career-long engagement with modernity, informed by a tradition of classical social theory whose neglect in Anglo-American sociology David did much to remedy through his translations as well as his writings: the ‘sociological impressionism’ that seeks to grasp totalities through ‘snapshots’ and ‘fragments’ whose representatives included Georg Simmel, Siegfried Kracauer, and Walter Benjamin. Conceived as a homage to David’s legacy (and his personal influence on my own intellectual development) rather than a commentary on his work, this essay is a Benjaminian dérive through twentieth-century Prague, which complements and counterpoints David’s beloved Vienna and Berlin. Prague’s modern history, I argue, gives Baudelaire’s celebrated definition of modernity as ‘le transitoire, le fugitif, le contingent’ surreally new dimensions. Indeed, the city might well be regarded as a ‘capital of the twentieth century’ in whose ‘ruins’ we can begin to excavate the ‘prehistory of postmodernity.’

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Classical Sociology
Additional Information:
Written for a special issue in memory of the late David P. Frisby, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312
Subjects:
?? baudelairebenjaminmemoryrealitypraguesurrealismsociology and political science ??
ID Code:
59030
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
09 Oct 2012 12:41
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 13:19