Power Discourses – Bibliotheca Scientiae et Artis 8.

Power discourses – Representations of power in sciences and arts, the 8th volume of series Bibliotheca Scientiae & Artis, published jointly by National Széchényi Library and Gondolat Publishing House, is out. The book provides a selected and edited version of lectures delivered at our Scientific Session related to the Festival of Science in Hungary, on November 25-26, 2015.

Blurb: Our volume focuses on eternal themes of human history, the reflection and legitimation of power in arts, the relations of power and the elite, power and the individual in three chronologically linear units, from the 5th century after Christ until present. Studies included in the volume approach their topics, in most of the cases, by using unexplored and tangentially known sources, from the direction of history, political science, philosophy, literary studies, theater history or cultural history. Although these writings come from various disciplines, it is obvious that themes reflecting on one another, emerging every now and then, add up to a rather dense network, while laudations, praise works, theater performances, ex librises and autograph possessor entries are all meant to serve (self-)representation of power.

What kind of strategies did old and new tyrants, monarchies, democracies and totalitarian state forms use; how much and what did they allow to their citizens; what kind roles the intelligentsia could and can play in the immediate environment of power; what kind of image about the relations of the periphery and power is given by the fictive world of literary works, and how does it relate to reality? Studies included in our volume search for an answer to these questions.

Published by National Széchényi Library and Gondolat Publishing House
Edited by Csilla Bíró and Beatrix Visy
(Bibliotheca Scientiae & Artis 8.)
ISBN 978 963 200 655 0
Price: HUF 3,900

The book can be ordered from our Office of New Publications, at the following e-mail address: kiadvanytar@oszk.hu, or it can be purchased in the Souvenir Shop next to the main entrance of National Széchényi Library.

Previous volumes of series Bibliotheca Scientiae et Artis, published jointly by NSZL and Gondolat Publishing House, are the following:

• Érték és értelmezés (Value and Interpretation), Edited by László Boka and Ildikó Sirató, 2010
• Szöveg, emlék, kép (Text, Memory, Image), Edited by László Boka and Judit P. Vásárhelyi, 2011
• Az identitás forrásai. Hangok, szövegek, gyűjtemények (Sources of Identity. Sounds, Texts, Collections), Edited by László Boka, Ferenc Földesi and Balázs Mikusi, 2012
• Esemény és narratíva. Történetiség, elbeszélés(ek), interpretáció (Event and Narrative. Historicity, Story-stories, Interpretation), Edited by Emőke Kötél and János Rainer M., 2013
• Források és hagyományképek (Sources and Tradition Images), Edited by Ágnes Stemler, 2014
• Tér(v)iszonyok és térkép(zet)ek (Space Conditions, Space Images), Edited by Csilla Bíró and Beatrix Visy, 2014
• Interpretációk interpretációja. Tudós bibliothecariusok, tudós elődök (Interpretation of Interpretations. Scholar Librarians, Scholar Predecessors), Edited by Edina Zsupán, 2015