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Genealogies of Modernity Episode 2: What Is Modernity?
Genealogies of Modernity Episode 2: What Is Modernity?
ratings:
Length:
38 minutes
Released:
Dec 6, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
We often think of modernity as a distinct time period in history – one that is said to start at different places, but which always includes us. Yet people have been claiming to be modern since at least the third century BC. Harvard scholar Michael Puett takes us back to ancient China, when a series of emperors laid claim to modernity in order to consolidate their rule. Puett argues that modernity is best understood not as a period on a timeline but as a claim to freedom from the past. By recognizing how “modernity claims” try either to erase the past or to master it for our own uses, we can appreciate what is at stake in our own invocations of “modernity."
Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh; Senior Research Fellow, Beatrice Institute
Featured Scholar:
Michael Puett, Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University
Special thanks: Travis DeCook, Rokhaya Dieng, Gina Elia, Thomas A. Lewis
For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii.
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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh; Senior Research Fellow, Beatrice Institute
Featured Scholar:
Michael Puett, Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University
Special thanks: Travis DeCook, Rokhaya Dieng, Gina Elia, Thomas A. Lewis
For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies
Released:
Dec 6, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Dagmar Schaefer, “The Crafting of the 10,000 Things: Knowledge and Technology in Seventeenth-Century China” (University of Chicago Press, 2011): In her elegant work of historical puppet theater The Crafting of the 10,000 Things: Knowledge and Technology in Seventeenth-Century China (University of Chicago Press, 2011), Dagmar Schaefer introduces us to the world of scholars and craftsmen in seven... by New Books in Chinese Studies