Let me explain the title a little. "Soupçon" is a French term, the favourite of the chef community. It refers to that special pinch (eh, 'punch', too) which adds a unique flavour to the concoction
Our column, which extends that metaphor, is going to be a cornucopia of 'wise saws' about literature (more the varieties, the better), related fields, humanities, and the arts. It would be an immense help for those preparing for the NET/SET/JRF kind of competitive examinations. May be, the aspirants might want me to do much more along these lines. Let us see! Yet, for sure, the not-so-literary, non-specialist reader, too, would enjoy these details!
Soupçon II.i
Who is the twentieth century thinker who critiqued the 'public sphere'? 1) Jürgen Habermas 2) Théodore Adorno 3) Carl Jung 4) Bertrand Russell The answer to this MCQ is 2)Theodore Adorno.
Yes, this week we are going to discuss the concept called 'public sphere'. Let us introduce the MCQ element this week onwards, and, oh, yes, the explanatory paragraphs about the title, et al, would henceforth be repeated only on Mondays.
'Public sphere' is currently a concept much in vogue, given the unfortunate event of the recent death of Jürgen Habermas, who theorised it in detail in his 1962 book, "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere."
Actually, this concept is as old as the 'polis', that is, the Greek city-state which differentiated between the 'oikos' (that is, the private household) and the 'agora' (that is, the public space) where citizens could deliberate on political issues as a stepping stone to acting collectively.
In the historical overview of this concept, we shall look at the Socrates-Plato-Aristotle tradition, the eighteenth century notions, the Habermas ideas, and the Adorno critique, with inputs from feminism.
Pratima Agnihotri Pune
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