The individual essays follow the global linkages that shaped the literary and artistic worlds of Taishō era Japan and sustained the proliferation of street art in post-“Arab Spring” Egypt and therefore exemplify and embrace the potential of transcultural studies.
Independent articles:
• Pierantonio Zanotti, “The Reception of Max Weber’s Cubist Poems (1914) in Taishō Japan”: Pierantonio Zanotti analyzes the reception of Cubist Poems, a collection of experimental poetry published in 1914 by the Jewish-American painter Max Weber (1881‒1961), in Japan. By using a number of theoretical tools from the works of Pierre Bourdieu, he offers a general description of the structure of the field of cultural production in 1910s and 1920s Tokyo.
• Saphinaz Amal Naguib, “Engaged Ephemeral Art: Street Art and the Egyptian Arab Spring”: The article covers the materiality of visual art and the translation of political contestation into street art, graffiti, and calligraffiti in Egypt within the context of the Arab Spring that swept over the Middle East and North Africa from December 2010 to early 2013.
Themed Section: “Transcultural Studies: Areas and Disciplines”:
• Daniel König, Katja Rakow, “The Transcultural Approach Within a Disciplinary Framework: An Introduction”: The aim of this themed section is to analyse and evaluate the relationship between the transcultural paradigm and various more or less established academic disciplines or fields of research.
• Daniel König, “Islamic Studies: A Field of Research Under Transcultural Crossfire”: The article gauges the transcultural character and disposition of Islamic Studies of catering to the needs of a colonial and imperialist agenda. Though the discipline can be regarded as transcultural per se, since largely non-Muslim Western perceptions on non-Western societies marked by Islam are formulated, its approach is debateable.
• Pablo Blitstein, “Sinology: Chinese Intellectual History and Transcultural Studies”: Pablo Blitstein, in his article, elaborates some methodological connections between Chinese intellectual history and transcultural studies in Euro-American academia. Therefore, he focuses on the critique of “methodological nationalism”, which sets the nation as being the ultimate framwork for research.
• Hans Martin Krämer, „Japanese Studies“: The article approaches the study of Japanese culture under the assumption of it being a product of responses to global developments and conjunctures that the West has also been subjected to. Further, Hans Martin Krämer resituates Japan in its Asian context from a transcultural perspective, which yields unexpected insights
• Esther Berg, Katja Rakow, “Religious Studies and Transcultural Studies: Revealing a Cosmos Not Known Before?”: Esther Berg and Katja Rakow introduce the transcultural approach of their research on Pentecostal Christianity in Singapore and discuss its possible contributions to the academic study of religion. Transcultural Studies is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal committed to promoting research on transculturality. Launched in 2010, it is published by the Cluster of Excellence, "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: The Dynamics of Transculturality" at the Heidelberg University and hosted by heiUP. Pictures: Yorozu Tetsugoro, Motarete tatsu hito (Leaning woman), 1917/ Marwan Shahin, Guy Fawkes mask Anonymous wearing the nemes headdress of pharaohs in Ancient Egypt, 2013. Cairo / Mad Graffiti Week (Facebook group), Joker as a puppeteer, 2012. Cairo.
• Daniel König, “Islamic Studies: A Field of Research Under Transcultural Crossfire”: The article gauges the transcultural character and disposition of Islamic Studies of catering to the needs of a colonial and imperialist agenda. Though the discipline can be regarded as transcultural per se, since largely non-Muslim Western perceptions on non-Western societies marked by Islam are formulated, its approach is debateable.
• Pablo Blitstein, “Sinology: Chinese Intellectual History and Transcultural Studies”: Pablo Blitstein, in his article, elaborates some methodological connections between Chinese intellectual history and transcultural studies in Euro-American academia. Therefore, he focuses on the critique of “methodological nationalism”, which sets the nation as being the ultimate framwork for research.
• Hans Martin Krämer, „Japanese Studies“: The article approaches the study of Japanese culture under the assumption of it being a product of responses to global developments and conjunctures that the West has also been subjected to. Further, Hans Martin Krämer resituates Japan in its Asian context from a transcultural perspective, which yields unexpected insights
• Esther Berg, Katja Rakow, “Religious Studies and Transcultural Studies: Revealing a Cosmos Not Known Before?”: Esther Berg and Katja Rakow introduce the transcultural approach of their research on Pentecostal Christianity in Singapore and discuss its possible contributions to the academic study of religion. Transcultural Studies is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal committed to promoting research on transculturality. Launched in 2010, it is published by the Cluster of Excellence, "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: The Dynamics of Transculturality" at the Heidelberg University and hosted by heiUP. Pictures: Yorozu Tetsugoro, Motarete tatsu hito (Leaning woman), 1917/ Marwan Shahin, Guy Fawkes mask Anonymous wearing the nemes headdress of pharaohs in Ancient Egypt, 2013. Cairo / Mad Graffiti Week (Facebook group), Joker as a puppeteer, 2012. Cairo.