Critical Connections: Forum on Cultural Studies in Asia and Beyond
16 March 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE SCHOLAR AND GUEST SPEAKER
Asst. Prof. Dr. Roman Meinhold (Assumption University) email: <roman.meinhold@gmail.com>
"Imitatio Dei – Karaoke – Imitatio Prominentis "
This paper investigates the relation between the religious concept imitatio dei and the popular cultural phenomenon of karaoke, which is extremely popular in Asia. According to research findings in comparative religion, imitatio dei, the imitation of god(s) in cultic-religious contexts is found in several religious rituals in diverse cultures, e.g. in transition rituals, such as birth, initiation, marriage, and funeral rituals. It can be inferred that imitatio dei is a sub-phenomenon of imitatio prominentis, the imitation of outstanding beings or persons.It can be shown that imitatio prominentis is a philosophic-anthropological datum, or a part of human nature (e.g. Aristotle; Immanuel Kant). Karaoke must be rendered as a popular cultural manifestation of imitatio prominentis. The investigation takes a transdisciplinary-synthetic approach interweaving research findings from areas such as philosophical anthropology, comparative religious studies, cultural critique and social psychology. The first part of the paper briefly explains the phenomenon of imitatio dei in the cultic-religious context according to Mircea Eliade’s research findings in the comparative study of transition rituals. The second part infers that there exists an innate human drive for imitatio prominentis, which is an essential component of human educational development. The third part deducts imitatio dei as a subphenomenon of imitatio prominentis. The last part renders karaoke as manifestation of imitatio prominentis and explains its attraction on the backdrop of imitatio prominentis and imitatio dei. It is inferred that such kind of imitations lead to subjectively experienced quasi -therapeutic and pseudo-therapeutic melioration (improvement).
| Roman Meinhold is Asst. Prof. of Philosophy and Director of the Guna Chakra Research Center at the Graduate School of Philosophy & Religion, Assumption University, Bangkok. He taught at the National University Lesotho, Africa and at the Weingarten University of Education, Germany. Roman got his MA and his PhD (both Philosophy) from University Mainz, Germany. His areas of specialization include Cultural Critique, Philosophy of Art and Culture, and Applied Philosophy/Ethics. His publications deal with everyday phenomena such as consumerism, environmental issues, eudaemonism, pseudo-therapy, otherness, and extremism from philosophical and trans-disciplinary pers |