... one of those rare edited volumes that advances social thought as it provides substantive religious and media ethnography that is good to think with." ―Dale Eickelman; Dartmouth CollegeIncreasingly; Pentecostal; Buddhist; Muslim; Jewish; Hindu; and indigenous movements all over the world make use of a great variety of modern mass media; both print and electronic. Through religious booklets; radio broadcasts; cassette tapes; television talk-shows; soap operas; and documentary film these movements address multiple publics and offer alternative forms of belonging; often in competition with the postcolonial nation-state. How have new practices of religious mediation transformed the public sphere? How has the adoption of new media impinged on religious experiences and notions of religious authority? Has neo-liberalism engendered a blurring of the boundaries between religion and entertainment? The vivid essays in this interdisciplinary volume combine rich empirical detail with theoretical reflection; offering new perspectives on a variety of media; genres; and religions.
#1564112 in Books Jonathan Boyarin 1998-07-22 1998-07-22Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.25 x 1.19 x 6.12l; 1.34 #File Name: 0253211875392 pagesISBN13: 9780253211873Condition: NewNotes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Works of witness to the Polish Jewish world destroyedBy Shalom FreedmanThis book contains selections from seventy of the more than five- hundred Memorial books of Jewish communities in Poland. As the editors make clear in their introduction 'the memorial books' aim to make certain that the destroyed world of Polish Jewry will not be forgotten.The books provide in some sense a record of the town they are written about; and often a picture of the people themselves. They connect up with the Jewish traditional Literature of Lamentation. In the words of the authors; " The memorial books came to be seen as substitute gravestones. " The memorial books are structured on a continuum from simple acts of naming to highly elaborated acts of narrative." The authors make clear that even a list of names serves the purpose of remembering. In their introduction the authors quote Shlomo Pultusker;" When I review in thought my life in Rozhan; events; splinterrs of half- forgotten memories; appear before my eyes. People ; formerly flesh and blood and everyday Jews; were transformed by the tragic events into figures similar to heroes in the dramas one reads.Of all the people of that time; individuals stand out whose names stick in memory..And to these people; most of whose remains lie in no cemetary; may my humble words about them serve as an eternal monument and redeem them from merciless oblivion. With trembling and fear of God I write my modest words; which are no more than a pale reflection of what was in reality."Three million Polish Jews were murdered in the Shoah.These books are the fragmented; inadequate witness of what they were.9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. This book vividly describes a destroyed worldBy A CustomerRarely is a book published that causes an entirely new genre of studies to open up. This was the result of the first edition of this book printed in 1983. Before 1983; some scholars; librarians; and genealogical researchers knew of yizkher bikher in general; but up to that time there had not been a major focus on these books as social; historical; and genealogical sources of first-hand knowledge of destroyed communities; to some extent because of language barriers. But as more lay persons began searching their roots in the late 1970s; with interest building in the 1980s and exploding in the 1990s; they started to tap into these remarkable books. The publication of From a Ruined Garden; containing over 70 translated excerpts from Polish yizkor books; illuminated for many lay persons the lost world depicted in these books from which they had been cut off because they could not read them in their original languages; primarily Yiddish and Hebrew. The first edition has long been out of print; but again; in another bit of fortunate timing; a second; expanded edition has been published.7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Reassembles the mosaic of pre-Holocaust Jewish lifeBy Ari DavidowWhat this book does; like nothing else; is to recreate the diversity of Jewish life in Eastern Europe prior to the Holocaust. Carefully selected excerpts from hundreds of memorial books in the YIVO library; this book isn't just about some shtetl; but about Zionists and Misnagdim and town councils and about town that; well; "most towns have a town fool; our town was so small that our village idiot was only half-crazy."
