Janus Head

• Sender: owner-newjour@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

Subject: Janus Head
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 12:51:37 -0400 (EDT)

Janus Head

http://www.janushead.org/

ISSN 1524-2269

Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature,
Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts

Janus Head is an Open Access on-line interdisciplinary journal dedicated to
graduate studies in literature, philosophy, and phenomenological
psychology.

What is Janus Head and why would anyone want to name a journal after it? 

A Janus head is a sculpture typically found at the doorway of a person's
house.  The god it represents, Janus, was two-headed, with each face
poised in opposite directions.  The phrase 'Janus faced' as it comes down
to us means 'two-faced' or deceitful but the original signification of the
two-headed god meant vigilance and new beginnings, as in the word
'January.' To quote from Bergen Evans' Dictionary of Mythology, 'It was a
peculiarity of this god that the doors of his temple were kept open in
time of war and closed in time of universal peace.  They were rarely
closed.'

Like the Janus head sculpture, this journal can be understood as standing
at a threshold.  Janus Head, the journal, aims to be a threshold by which
graduate students may enter a world in which they may be heard and
dialogue among one another.  The space beyond the Janus head, then, is a
space where dwelling can occur, where thinking can take place, and where
community can be built.  With the opening of a dialogue there is the
possibility of new beginnings.  What shape that will take will depend
solely upon the path which is opened through the dialogue within the
community beyond the threshold.  Yet, without a threshold, one cannot
enter upon a path at all -- nor can a community be built unless there is a
clearing where the community can dwell. 

The image of Janus as two-headed reminds us that, as human beings, we are
always radically decentered and unknown to ourselves.  It is no mistake
that the doors of Janus' temple were kept open in times of war.  In war,
the other can take on the menacing quality of what is unknown to
ourselves.  Janus' signification of vigilance calls us to continually
remain open to what has been marginalized, split off, and left out of
dialogue, for it may appear in the face of that which aims to destroy us. 
The opening up of a dwelling-space can offer the dialogue which may thwart
the mutual destruction which can result when we fail to recognize our
disowned face in the face of the other.  And, with such a dialogue, we
cannot help but be transformed.  Self and other offer each other, in this
space, the opportunity for new beginnings with new dialogues.  Further,
the significance of Janus being two-headed reminds us that, as Nietzsche
wrote, 'Truth is the kind of error without which a species cannot
survive.' The 'truth' of any community is always only partial, both
revealing and concealing, and thus necessitating a never-ending dialogue
by which the meaning and ground of the community can continue to be
renewed. 

We feel that in the wake of the current continental philosophical crisis
(e.g. postmodernism and poststructuralist critiques of both modernism, and
to some extent, phenomenology), the discourse of particular thinkers in
the fields of literature, philosophy and phenomenological psychology have
been swept under the rug.  This is not to suggest that postmodernism and
poststructuralism have yet to yield fruits --they indeed have --but rather
to suggest that the dialogue is not over.  In other words, this is not a
time for the doors of Janus to be closed. 

Further, we feel that the epistemological debate over how it is we know
loses strength when a culture remains bound to one specific ideal for the
basis of knowledge, e.g. the scientific method in Western culture.  The
prevailing cultural belief in one discourse as the only acceptable format
for 'truth' is inappropriate and dangerous, fostering the conditions of
war in which those discourses which have been marginalized return with a
face of destruction.  There is more than one discourse for opening the
concealing-revealing path of 'truth,' and when those alternative forms of
discourse are ignored, our culture suffers.  So, rather than 'either/or,'
we prefer 'both/and' when it comes to exploring the various ways in which
humans may come to know the truths of their existence.  Our underlying
project with Janus Head strives toward maintaining this kind of attitude: 
an attitude of respect and openness to the various manifestations of truth
in human experience and an attitude which also fosters understanding
through meditative thinking, narrative structure, and poetic imagination. 

It is a difficult task to initiate into the current readership a new
journal published in ink.  The costs of publishing alone prevent many such
endeavors, and few would be willing to support, through yearly
contributions, a journal dedicated solely to graduate student work.  The
advent of the 'Web page' in the last two decades circumvents the obstacles
of overhead costs and readership attainment.  Many are discovering the
ease of web publishing and the relatively inexpensive itilization of web
hosting services.  With the advent of the WWW, one is able to publish
anything for anybody to anywhere in the world.  But typically one does not
read a journal because anyone has created it one reads it because someone
known and trusted has produced the kind of work one expects.  Our only
apology in the face of those who are skeptical about web publishing
(including ourselves) is to ask the reader to assess the quality and value
of the work produced and to critique, comment on, or question the ideas
and research put forth on each page of the journal.  We honestly believe
that quality can live within any form or means of human communication,
whether it be oracular, printed, or technological.  In being mindful of
such matters, we thus offer you, the reader, a journal dedicated to the
excellent and often overlooked scholarship and creativity of those new to
the dialogues of our culture. 

Contact:

Co-editor, Brent Dean Robbins
Email: bdeanrob@sgi.net