An Enchanted Modern
An Enchanted Modern

Author: Lara Deeb

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2006-03-19

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9780691124216

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Based on two years of ethnographic research in Beirut, this book demonstrates that Islam and modernity are not merely compatible, but actually go hand-in-hand. This portrayal of an Islamic community articulates how an alternative modernity may be constructed by Shi'I Muslims who consider themselves simultaneously deeply modern, cosmopolitan, and pious. In this depiction of a Shi'I Muslim community in Beirut, Deeb examines the ways that individual and collective expressions and understandings of piety have been debated, contested, and reformulated. Women take center stage in this process, a result of their visibility both within the community, and in relation to Western ideas that link the status of women to modernity.

An Enchanted Modern
An Enchanted Modern

Author: Lara Deeb

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-06-27

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1400840783

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Based on two years of ethnographic research in the southern suburbs of Beirut, An Enchanted Modern demonstrates that Islam and modernity are not merely compatible, but actually go hand-in-hand. This eloquent ethnographic portrayal of an Islamic community articulates how an alternative modernity, and specifically an enchanted modernity, may be constructed by Shi'I Muslims who consider themselves simultaneously deeply modern, cosmopolitan, and pious. In this depiction of a Shi'I Muslim community in Beirut, Deeb examines the ways that individual and collective expressions and understandings of piety have been debated, contested, and reformulated. Women take center stage in this process, a result of their visibility both within the community, and in relation to Western ideas that link the status of women to modernity. By emphasizing the ways notions of modernity and piety are lived, debated, and shaped by "everyday Islamists," this book underscores the inseparability of piety and politics in the lives of pious Muslims.

The Enchantment of Modern Life
The Enchantment of Modern Life

Author: Jane Bennett

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2016-11-22

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1400884535

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It is a commonplace that the modern world cannot be experienced as enchanted--that the very concept of enchantment belongs to past ages of superstition. Jane Bennett challenges that view. She seeks to rehabilitate enchantment, showing not only how it is still possible to experience genuine wonder, but how such experience is crucial to motivating ethical behavior. A creative blend of political theory, philosophy, and literary studies, this book is a powerful and innovative contribution to an emerging interdisciplinary conversation about the deep connections between ethics, aesthetics, and politics. As Bennett describes it, enchantment is a sense of openness to the unusual, the captivating, and the disturbing in everyday life. She guides us through a wide and often surprising range of sources of enchantment, showing that we can still find enchantment in nature, for example, but also in such unexpected places as modern technology, advertising, and even bureaucracy. She then explains how everyday moments of enchantment can be cultivated to build an ethics of generosity, stimulating the emotional energy and honing the perceptual refinement necessary to follow moral codes. Throughout, Bennett draws on thinkers and writers as diverse as Kant, Schiller, Thoreau, Kafka, Marx, Weber, Adorno, and Deleuze. With its range and daring, The Enchantment of Modern Life is a provocative challenge to the centuries-old ''narrative of disenchantment,'' one that presents a new ''alter-tale'' that discloses our profound attachment to the human and nonhuman world.

Enchantment
Enchantment

Author: Orson Scott Card

Publisher: Del Rey

Published: 2005-05-31

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0345484509

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In Enchantment, Orson Scott Card works his magic as never before, transforming the timeless story of Sleeping Beauty into an original fantasy brimming with romance and adventure. The moment Ivan stumbled upon a clearing in the dense Carpathian forest, his life was forever changed. Atop a pedestal encircled by fallen leaves, the beautiful princess Katerina lay still as death. But beneath the foliage a malevolent presence stirred and sent the ten-year-old Ivan scrambling for the safety of Cousin Marek's farm. Now, years later, Ivan is an American graduate student, engaged to be married. Yet he cannot forget that long-ago day in the forest—or convince himself it was merely a frightened boy’s fantasy. Compelled to return to his native land, Ivan finds the clearing just as he left it. This time he does not run. This time he awakens the beauty with a kiss . . . and steps into a world that vanished a thousand years ago. A rich tapestry of clashing worlds and cultures, Enchantment is a powerfully original novel of a love and destiny that transcend centuries . . . and the dark force that stalks them across the ages.

Leisurely Islam
Leisurely Islam

Author: Lara Deeb

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013-10-27

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0691153663

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How the rise of leisure is changing contemporary Lebanon South Beirut has recently become a vibrant leisure destination with a plethora of cafés and restaurants that cater to the young, fashionable, and pious. What effects have these establishments had on the moral norms, spatial practices, and urban experiences of this Lebanese community? From the diverse voices of young Shi'i Muslims searching for places to hang out, to the Hezbollah officials who want this media-savvy generation to be more politically involved, to the religious leaders worried that Lebanese youth are losing their moral compasses, Leisurely Islam provides a sophisticated and original look at leisure in the Lebanese capital. What makes a café morally appropriate? How do people negotiate morality in relation to different places? And under what circumstances might a pious Muslim go to a café that serves alcohol? Lara Deeb and Mona Harb highlight tensions and complexities exacerbated by the presence of multiple religious authorities, a fraught sectarian political context, class mobility, and a generation that takes religion for granted but wants to have fun. The authors elucidate the political, economic, religious, and social changes that have taken place since 2000, and examine leisure's influence on Lebanese sociopolitical and urban situations. Asserting that morality and geography cannot be fully understood in isolation from one another, Leisurely Islam offers a colorful new understanding of the most powerful community in Lebanon today.

The Enchanted Hour
The Enchanted Hour

Author: Meghan Cox Gurdon

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2019-01-15

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0062562835

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A Wall Street Journal writer’s conversation-changing look at how reading aloud makes adults and children smarter, happier, healthier, more successful and more closely attached, even as technology pulls in the other direction. A miraculous alchemy occurs when one person reads to another, transforming the simple stuff of a book, a voice, and a bit of time into complex and powerful fuel for the heart, brain, and imagination. Grounded in the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, and drawing widely from literature, The Enchanted Hour explains the dazzling cognitive and social-emotional benefits that await children, whatever their class, nationality or family background. But it’s not just about bedtime stories for little kids: Reading aloud consoles, uplifts and invigorates at every age, deepening the intellectual lives and emotional well-being of teenagers and adults, too. Meghan Cox Gurdon argues that this ancient practice is a fast-working antidote to the fractured attention spans, atomized families and unfulfilling ephemera of the tech era, helping to replenish what our devices are leaching away. For everyone, reading aloud engages the mind in complex narratives; for children, it’s an irreplaceable gift that builds vocabulary, fosters imagination, and kindles a lifelong appreciation of language, stories and pictures. Bringing together the latest scientific research, practical tips, and reading recommendations, The Enchanted Hour will both charm and galvanize, inspiring readers to share this invaluable, life-altering tradition with the people they love most.

Shi'ite Lebanon
Shi'ite Lebanon

Author: Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 023114427X

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Annotation By providing a new framework for understanding Shi'ite national politics in Lebanon, Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr recasts the relationship between religion and nationalism in the Middle East

Female Youth in Contemporary Egypt
Female Youth in Contemporary Egypt

Author: Dina Hosni

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-07-26

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 1000607283

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Based on interview material, observations and content analysis, this book captures the everyday life structures of a cohort of Muslim/ex-Islamist female youth in Egypt who have joined or established new networks that share the common interest of doing ‘good’ to the society based on their religious worldviews, representing a broader societal movement. Female Youth in Contemporary Egypt posits that despite the fact that the 2011 Egyptian uprisings did not necessarily materialize with the political effects anticipated by some of its activists, it seems to have led to the formation of a new generation of active youth with a distinct worldview. Four broad and intertwined theoretical considerations have been taken into account. First, the book delineates the emergence and continuous development of post- (and sometimes non-) bourgeois public spheres in Arabo-Islamic contexts and conceptualizes multiple publics of overlapping Islamic structures rather than one Islamic public. Second, it offers an empirical as well as a conceptual understanding of the positioning of religion as public/private. Third, it presents a critique of Islamist thought conducive to the rise of post-Islamism; and fourth it offers a critique of feminist thought to throw light on novel forms of Muslim women's discourses and activism in line with post-Islamist worldviews. This book will be of interest to scholars in Middle Eastern Studies, women’s studies, and political studies.

Face-veiled Women in Contemporary Indonesia
Face-veiled Women in Contemporary Indonesia

Author: Eva F. Nisa

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-21

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 1000647056

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Face veiling is relatively new in Indonesia. It is often stereotyped as a sign of extremism and the growing Arabisation of Indonesian Muslims. It is also perceived as a symbol that demonstrates a lack of female agency. However, increasing numbers of women are choosing to wear the cadar (the full face veil). This book provides an ethnographic study of these women: why they choose to wear the cadar, embody strict religious disciplinary practices and the consequences of that choice. The women in this book belong to two Islamic revivalist movements: various Salafi groups and the Tablīghī Jamāʿat. Indonesia has constantly witnessed transformations in the meanings and practices of Islam, and this book demonstrates that women are key actors in this process. Nisa demonstrates that contrary to stereotypes, the women in this study have an agency which is expressed through their chosen docility and obedience.

Theorising Religion
Theorising Religion

Author: John Walliss

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-24

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1351879618

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Religion is controversial and challenging. Whilst religious forces are powerful in numerous societies, they have little or no significance for wide swaths of public or private life in other places. The task of theoretical work in the sociology of religion is, therefore, to make sense of this apparently paradoxical situation in which religion is simultaneously significant and insignificant. The chapters of Part One consider the classical roots of ideas about religion that dominated sociological ways of thinking about it for most of the twentieth century. Each chapter offers sound reasons for continuing to find theoretical inspiration and challenge in the sociological classics whilst also seeking ways of enhancing and extending their relevance to religion today. Part Two contains chapters that open up fresh perspectives on aspects of modern, post-modern and ultra-modern religion without necessarily ignoring the classical legacy. The chapters of Part Three chart new directions for the sociological analysis of religion by fundamentally re-thinking its theoretical basis, by extending its disciplinary boundaries and by examining previously overlooked topics.