Modernism in the Middle East and Arab World
Exploring modernity and its intellectual trends in the Middle East is a very fitting endeavour, as ‘Middle East’ itself is a ‘modern’ term which has…
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Modernism in Europe
We are living in a very singular moment of history. It is a moment of crisis, in the literal sense of that word. In every…
Modernism in Africa
Though they often escape critical scrutiny, concepts such as modernism, modernity, and modernization are at the heart of the concept of development, and thus omnipresent…
Shawqi, Ahmad (احمد شوقي) (1868–1932)
Ahmad Shawqi was the leading poet and pioneer playwright of the neo-classical period of Arabic literature. Shawqi benefited from a secular education, which allowed him…
Amichai, Yehuda (1924–2000)
Yehuda Amichai was born in Würzburg, Germany to an Orthodox Jewish family, and was raised speaking both Hebrew and German. His family migrated to Israel…
Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal (1881–1938)
A military officer in the Ottoman army, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the leader of the Turkish national resistance movement and the founder and first president…
Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinius (1832–1910)
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson is one of the most important Scandinavian writers of the second half of the 19th century, a novelist and playwright as well as…
Ginsberg, Asher Zvi Hirsh (1856–1927)
Ahad Ha’am was born Asher Zvi Hirsh Ginsberg in 1856 in Skvira, Ukraine, to an affluent family that was religiously affiliated with the Hasidic movement,…
Epiphany
The standard Oxford English Dictionary definition of ‘epiphany’ refers to ‘an appearance or manifestation, especially of a deity’ — and in particular the divine ‘manifestation…
Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund (1903–69)
Born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund to an Italian Catholic mother and an assimilated Jewish father, Adorno would take his mother’s vaguely aristocratic last name. Philosopher, aesthetician,…
Singer, Isaac Bashevis (1904–1991)
Isaac Bashevis Singer was born in Leoncin, Poland, where his father was a Hasidic rabbi. He grew up between 1908–1917 in Warsaw and from 1917–1921…
Gnessin, Uri Nissan (1879–1913)
Uri Nissan Gnessin was a Russian Jewish author, who is recognized as one of the founders of Modern Hebrew literature. He was born in Starodub,…
Schmitt, Carl (1888–1985)
A conservative German jurist, political theorist, and Roman Catholic, Schmitt became the most significant legal mind of Weimar and then Nazi Germany. His first major…
Berdyczewski, Micha Yosef (1865–1921)
Micha Yosef Berdyczewski was a Ukrainian-born writer, journalist and Hebrew scholar who is best known for his modernist writings on the Jewish faith. The son…
Plaza, Juan Bautista (1898–1965)
Juan Bautista Plaza (Caracas, 19 July 1898–1 January 1965) was a Venezuelan composer, educator, writer, and musicologist active in Caracas; he was one of the…
Zionism
Zionism is the umbrella term used to describe the various strains of Jewish nationalism that grew out of other 19th-century nationalist ideologies and movements. Zionist…
Bergelson, Dovid (1884–1952)
Dovid Bergelson was a major Yiddish prose writer and essayist. He had a lasting impact on Yiddish fiction writing, introducing new narrative techniques such as…
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA)
The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) is an art museum located next to Laleh Park, in Tehran, Iran. The museum houses a large collection…
Yiddish Literature 1864–1939
The most important writer of old Yiddish literature was Elijah Levita (a.k.a. Elye Bokher, 1469–1549), who adapted the Italian version of the chivalric romance Bevis of Hampton into…
Yoga
The term ‘yoga’ refers to a heterogeneous matrix of philosophies and practices that originated in India and developed into a school of thought sometime between…
Besant, Annie (1847–1933)
Born Annie Wood, Annie Besant was an English political activist and spiritualist with Irish heritage. She married British clergyman Frank Besant in 1867; they separated…
Husain, M.F. (1915–2011)
M.F. Husain has often been called India’s Pablo Picasso on account of his stature as the most representative artist of modern India. After the gain…
Enwonwu, Ben C. (1917–1994)
Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu was a pioneer African modernist and the first African transnational artist to gain global visibility, having had his art exhibited in Europe,…
Noguchi, Isamu (1904–1988)
Searching for a redefinition of sculpture, Isamu Noguchi’s work slipped between object-making, industrial design, set design for theater and dance, public sculpture, and land art.…
Emmanuel Lévinas (1906–1995)
Emmanuel Lévinas was a French philosopher of Jewish–Lithuanian origins who drew strongly on German phenomenology in his investigations of intentionality, subjectivity, and ethics. An officer…