Introduction: Shaping the “New Man” in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Practices between Hope and Anxiety (1940s–1960s)

  • Katrin Bromber (PhD in African Linguistics and Habilitation in African Studies, Senior Research Fellow at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin)
  • Jakob Krais (PhD in Islamic Studies, Research Fellow with the special programme “Islam, the Modern Nation-State, and Transnational Movements,” Gerda Henkel Stiftung)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26014/j.comp.2018.05.01

Abstract

This special issue investigates the social practices of shaping the “New Man” between the 1940s and 1960s, through five case studies from South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Objecting to somewhat Eurocentric periodizations in common use, it argues for the persistence of the concept after World War II, and beyond the fascist and Soviet models. The context of late colonial and early post-colonial developmentalism and nation-building also transcends historiographic paradigms, such as the eras of fascism, decolonization, or the Cold War. Looking for local specificities as well as for transnational links, ideas of Progress related to the formation of “New Men” are studied especially in connection with the issues of the body, of spaces, and of symbols.

Available Formats

Published

2018

How to Cite

Bromber, K., & Krais, J. (2018). Introduction: Shaping the “New Man” in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Practices between Hope and Anxiety (1940s–1960s). Comparativ, 28(5), 7–21. https://doi.org/10.26014/j.comp.2018.05.01

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 5 (2018): Shaping the “New Man” in Africa, Asia and the Middle East: Practices, Networks and Mobilization (1940s–1960s)

Section

Editorial