Human Rights and Literature

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pramod K. Nayar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Ariel Dorfman ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modified Forms

The field of human rights (HR) and literature has expanded in the last two decades. Fiction, poetry, memoirs, and graphic novels with HR themes have been examined, and also cognate fields like popular culture and HR, humanitarianism, and the history of HR itself. The literary, with its emphasis on the human ‘subject,’ the formation of this subject, and the hurdles that confront its formation, is appropriate for the study of how humans are conceptualized as deserving (or not) of rights, and the conditions in which the human loses her humanness. Victims, perpetrators, and bystanders are characters in literary texts that critics study as models of subjectivity. The literary text asks us to imagine the nature of the human person, the universal state of human vulnerability, and the situations in which this vulnerability is prised open for exploitation. The entries here consist of those that engage directly with literary texts but also with frames, contested and debated, that define the human, and without which a rights regime cannot be put in place or modified. Forms and aesthetics that are central to the documentation, witnessing, and communicating the urgency of HR themes in various genres are also necessarily a part of this bibliography. Various forms and genres in literature—across ages, geocultural formations, and nations—have addressed the theme of HR, explicitly or implicitly. The war novel, for instance, is more concerned with mass HR violations such as genocide, rape, and continuing trauma. The child-abuse novel is focused on individual HR. Plays by authors like Ariel Dorfman, (e.g., his Resistance trilogy) use theatre to speak of unspeakable horrors like torture. In the late 20th century, especially in the wake of Art Spiegelman’s pioneering Maus, numerous graphic novels, comics, and pieces of comics journalism have sought to document atrocity and HR. Testimonial texts and fiction by victims have constituted a globally visible genre, again since the last half of the 20th century.

scholarly journals The Siberian Polonia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th century in the Polish historiography

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Vladimir Shaidurov
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Revolutionary Movement ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire

The period between the 19th – early 20th century witnessed waves of actively forming Polish communities in Russia’s rural areas. A major factor that contributed to the process was the repressive policy by the Russian Empire towards those involved in the Polish national liberation and revolutionary movement. Large communities were founded in Siberia, the Volga region, Caucasus, and European North of Russia (Arkhangelsk). One of the largest communities emerged in Siberia. By the early 20th century, the Polonia in the region consisted of tens of thousands of people. The Polish population was engaged in Siberia’s economic life and was an important stakeholder in business. Among the most well-known Polish-Siberian entrepreneurs was Alfons Poklewski-Koziell who was called the “Vodka King of Siberia” by his contemporaries. Poles, who returned from Siberian exile and penal labor, left recollections of their staying in Siberia or notes on the region starting already from the middle of the 19th century. It was this literature that was the main source of information about the life of the Siberian full for a long time. Exile undoubtedly became a significant factor that was responsible for Russia’s negative image in the historical memory of Poles. This was reflected in publications based on the martyrological approach in the Polish historiography. Glorification of the struggle of Poles to restore their statehood was a central standpoint adopted not only in memoirs, but also in scientific studies that appeared the second half of the 19th – early 20th century. The martyrological approach dominated the Polish historiography until 1970s. It was not until the late 20th century that serious scientific research started utilizing the civilizational approach, which broke the mold of the Polish historical science. This is currently a leading approach. This enables us to objectively reconstruct the history of the Siberian Polonia in the imperial period of the Russian history. The article is intended to analyze publications by Polish authors on the history of the Polish community in Siberia the 19th – early 20th century. It focuses on memoirs and research works, which had an impact on the reconstruction of the Siberian Polonia’s history. The paper is written using the retrospective, genetic, and comparative methods.re.

The History of Christian Missions to Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Etherington
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Christian Missions ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sub Saharan

Christianity came very early to Africa, as attested by the Gospels. The agencies by which it spread across North Africa and into the Kingdom of Aksum remain largely unknown. Even after the rise of Islam cut communications between sub-Saharan Africa and the churches of Rome and Constantinople, it survived in the eastern Sudan kingdom of Nubia until the 15th century and never died in Ethiopia. The documentary history of organized missions begins with the Roman Catholic monastic orders founded in the 13th century. Their evangelical work in Africa was closely bound up with Portuguese colonialism, which both helped and hindered their operations. Organized European Protestant missions date from the 18th-century evangelical awakening and were much less creatures of states. Africa was a particular object of attention for Evangelicals opposed to slavery and the slave trade. Paradoxically this gave an impetus to colonizing ventures aimed at undercutting the moral and economic foundations of slavery in Africa. Disease proved to be a deadly obstacle to European- and American-born missionaries in tropical Africa, thus spurring projects for enrolling local agents who had acquired childhood immunity. Southern Africa below the Zambezi River attracted missionaries from many parts of Europe and North America because of the absence of the most fearsome diseases. However the turbulent politics of the region complicated their work by restricting their access to organized African kingdoms and chieftaincies. The prevalent mission model until the late 19th century was a station under the direction of a single European family whose religious and educational endeavors were directed at a small number of African residents. Catholic missions acquired new energy following the French Revolution, the old Portuguese system of partnership with the state was displaced by enthusiasm for independent operations under the authority of the Pope in Rome. Several new missionary orders were founded with a particular focus on Africa. Mission publications of the 19th and 20th centuries can convey a misleading impression that the key agents in the spread of African Christianity were foreign-born white males. Not only does this neglect the work of women as wives and teachers, but it diverts attention from the Africans who were everywhere the dominant force in the spread of modern Christianity. By the turn of the 20th century, evangelism had escaped the bounds of mission stations driven by African initiative and the appearance of so-called “faith missions” based on a model of itinerant preaching. African prophets and independent evangelists developed new forms of Christianity. Once dismissed as heretical or syncretic, they gradually came to be recognized as legitimate variants of the sort that have always accompanied the acculturation of religion in new environments. Decolonization caught most foreign mission operations unawares and required major changes, most notably in the recruitment of African clergy to the upper echelons of church hierarchies. By the late 20th century Africans emerged as an independent force in Christian missions, sending agents to other continents.

Reforms of Administrative Law in the PRC and Vietnam: The Possible Role of the Legal Tradition

2003 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-290
Author(s):  
Karin Buhmann
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Modern System

AbstractThe article takes its point of departure in administrative law and good governance as possible avenues for increased implementation of rights, including human rights. The author discusses the role that pre-modern East Asian ideas on governance and pre-modern administrative law and institutions for monitoring the executive's use of power may play for the substance and focus of the reforms of administrative law that have been undertaken in the late 20th century in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and in Vietnam. The article discusses the possible influence of ideas and institutions inspired by Confucianism and the School of Legalism, including such features as a meritocratic civil service, institutions for monitoring the executive and for dealing with complaints, instrumental use of law, and use of rewards, punishments and instruction to achieve the aims of the law. The author compares the prevalence of the features of pre-modern China and Vietnam with elements in legislation and institutions implemented under the late 20th century reform processes in the PRC and Vietnam. The article concludes that the legacy of the pre-modern system of administrative law and governance and related institutions appears to play a role in the modern reform process that is more than accidental, and that this legacy results in a relatively strong emphasis on a principle of legality in the legislation implemented under the reforms and in a relatively weaker emphasis on the principle of equality. The article suggests that features of the premodern legacy, especially the emphasis on exercise of executive power in accordance with law, may be explored as providing potential for contributing to an increased quality of public administration and an increased implementation of rule of law and specific rights, including human rights and rights of relevance to trade and investment. It is also suggested that these features of the pre-modern system may be explored by the development community and international organizations as potential for creating ownership and sustainability of governance and law reforms that are of interest to external partners of the PRC and Vietnam.

scholarly journals SPIRITUAL VERSES ABOUT TSAREVICH JOASAPH: PLOTS AND METRICAL MODELS

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (49) ◽  
pp. 88-131
Author(s):  
Alexander Petrov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Folk Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Supplementary Material ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Selection Of

The article considers the problem of the development of metrical forms of the cycle of folklore spiritual verses about Tsarevich Joasaph. Spiritual verses related to the literary tradition are used as supplementary material. The aim of the research is to trace the evolution of the metrics of folklore spiritual verses about Tsarevich Joasaph in the context of the history of Russian versification. The tasks of the research are the formation of a database of texts, differentiation of the texts into thematic groups, selection of method of work, and the analysis of folk and literary variants. The research methodology is determined by its complex nature, being at the intersection of folklore, linguistics, and literary studies. Taking into account the heterogeneity of the material, special methods are used for texts created within the framework of different systems of versification: syllabic, accentual, and syllabic-accentual. The entire corpus of texts consists of seven types of plots and can be divided into metrical groups depending on the time and the environment of their creation. The earliest known text dates from the 16th century; it is a free, non-rhymed accentual verse. A significant corpus of texts was created in the 17th century, in line with the literary syllabic system of versification; these are spiritual verses with 8 or 13 syllables per line. Some of these were assimilated by folk culture and subsequently lost their syllabic equality of lines, becoming close to the accentual system. Literary texts of the 18th–19th centuries are closer to the syllabic-accentual system; sometimes they include polymetric poetic forms. Folklore texts collected in the 19th–20th centuries are based mainly on the accentual system of versification (dolnik, taktovik, accentual verse); however, as we move towards the 20th century, syllabic-accentual tendencies also intensify in this area. In the 20th century, the tradition of spiritual poetry was based on syllabic-accentual models borrowed from the works of Russian classics. The long history of the existence of this poetic cycle is, in general, in line with the evolution of Russian versification. At the same time, if the syllabic-accentual verse has been formed since the 18th century in the literary tradition of spiritual poetry, then in folklore it spread relatively late. Reliable examples of syllabic-accentual versification are found in folklore spiritual verses about Tsarevich Joasaph from the second half of the 19th century.

scholarly journals Drama in Ho Chi Minh City literature and art life

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-60
Author(s):  
Thuy Trung Luu
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Performance Art ◽  
Early Time ◽  
High Time ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

In the history of Vietnamese drama, Saigon was one of the places absorbing Western drama from the early time. Although drama in Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City didn’t develop in a smooth and straight way, it was a continuous and unbroken process. This process brought in strong development of drama in Ho Chi Minh city in two decades of the late 20th century and the early 21st century. However, in recent years, drama in Ho Chi Minh City seems to proceed slowly, which reflects some irrational aspects from drama script, performance art to performance operation. Therefore, it’s high time to review the whole history of drama in Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City to collect experiences for the steady development of drama in this City in the future.

scholarly journals The Role of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Countermovements Against Economic Liberalism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jose Villalobos Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Economic Liberalism ◽  
Double Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

<p><b>In recent years, revisionist studies of the history of economic, social and cultural rights have deemed that the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is a failed instrument. My thesis explores the extent to which that assessment is accurate and concludes that, although the ICESCR’s drafters did imbue the treaty with a strong purpose of resistance against the detrimental impacts of economic liberalism, the instrument’s ties to its historical roots might be too strong for it to serve an effective purpose in present and future efforts to push back against excessive marketisation. </b></p> <p>In order to fully understand both the ICESCR’s shortcomings and its unfulfilled potential, it is helpful to analyse the treaty’s content and purpose from the perspective of Karl Polanyi’s theory of the double movement. This theory, presented by Polanyi in his 1944 monograph The Great Transformation, established that the 19th century was defined by a struggle between those who advocated for economic liberalism and those who protected society from that economic model through a “countermovement” that promoted mechanisms of “social protection”. A current wave of neo-Polanyian scholarship has reinterpreted the double movement as a pendulum that has continued to swing between economic liberalism and social protection, explaining the rise of neoliberal practices in the second half of the 20th century and contemporary efforts to limit the influence of the market over society.</p> <p>From a neo-Polanyian viewpoint, the ICESCR was a product of the second countermovement – a series of actions taken by governments all around the world during the mid-20th century to mitigate the harmful effects of the market on people’s wellbeing. After conducting a detailed examination of the ICESCR’s travaux préparatoires, I determine that the members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights consciously shaped the treaty according to six principles that I identify as underlying the second countermovement. </p> <p>This thesis argues that such an intimate connection with those principles, which at first might seem benign, is the source of the ICESCR’s current limitations. Because the instrument is a product of the second countermovement, it is now out of place in an era where economic liberalism presents different challenges than it did in the mid-20th century. That dilemma is illustrated by the contrast between the tentative approach of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – bound by the constraints of the ICESCR – and the confrontational tone of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, which has taken advantage of its wider mandate to endorse practices of an emerging third countermovement that directly address the specific challenges of this era. Therefore, while the ICESCR has been used by those bodies to resist neoliberal ambitions, the treaty might become less relevant the further we move away – both chronologically and socio-politically – from the second countermovement.</p>

scholarly journals O SIQUEIRISMO NO CONTEXTO DAS FORMAS POLÍTICAS DE DOMINAÇÃO NO BRASIL

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 783
Author(s):  
Sandoval Antunes de Souza
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Political Group ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Brazilian History ◽  
Siglo Xx

O siqueirismo se tornou um derivativo de uma palavra que era comum desde a criação do Estado nos meios políticos. Com a configuração de um grupo político praticamente hegemônico no Tocantins, os políticos, sejam deputados, prefeitos, vereadores e senadores ligados ao grupo de Siqueira Campos eram chamados de siqueiristas. Desta forma objetivamos fazer uma análise do siqueirismo comparativamente a outras formas de dominação, na perspectiva weberiana, no Brasil contemporâneo. O interesse é pontuar, em um recorte deliberado de algumas formas de poder que possam servir à percepção do que é o siqueirismo no Tocantins e compará-lo com outros personagens da política brasileira na segunda metade do século XX.   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Tocantins; siqueirismo; dominação; política.     ABSTRACT Siqueirism has become a derivative of a word that was common in political circles since the creation of Tocantins state. With the configuration of a practically homogeneous political group in Tocantins, the politicians that were affiliated to Siqueira Campos were called “siqueiristas”, whether they were congressmen, mayors, councilman or senators. Thus, we aim to make an analysis of siqueirismo with respect to other forms of domination in contemporary Brazil using a Weberian perspective. Our interest is to point which forms of power can be used to built a perception of what is siqueirism and compare it to other political characters from Brazilian history of the mid-late 20th century.   KEYWORDS: Tocantins; siqueirism; domination; politics.     RESUMEN El siqueirismo se convirtió en un derivado de una palabra que era común desde la creación del Estado en los círculos políticos. Con la configuración de un grupo político prácticamente hegemónica en Tocantins, los políticos son diputados, alcaldes, concejales y senadores vinculados al grupo de Siqueira Campos fueron llamados siqueiristas. De esta manera se pretende analizar la siqueirismo en comparación con otras formas de dominación, en la perspectiva de Weber, en el Brasil contemporáneo. El interés es anotar en un corte deliberado de algunas formas de poder que puede servir a la percepción de lo que se siqueirismo en Tocantins y compararlo con otros personajes de la política brasileña en la segunda mitad del siglo XX.     PALABRAS CLAVE: Tocantins; Siqueirismo; Dominación; Política.

scholarly journals Symphonies by B. Tishchenko: in tune with the times, against the troubled times. Part 1

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-22
Author(s):  
Iurii Eduardovich Serov
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Research Subject ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
Russian Music ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Times

The research subject is the scope of symphonic works of an outstanding Russian composer of the late 20th century Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko (1939 - 2010). The article continues a brief analysis of all 17 symphonies of the composer, and considers his works of the 1980s - the 2000s: French Symphony, Pushkin Symphony, Dante Symphonies, and Symphonies No 7, 8, 9.&nbsp; The author considers in detail such aspects of the topic as Tishchenko&rsquo;s innovatory role in the renewal of Russian symphonism of the second half of the 20th century, the interrelation between and poetry in his large orchestra compositions, the significant impact of literary concepts on the development of his symphonism. Special attention is given to Tishchenko succeeding to the great Russian symphonic tradition. The main idea of the article is that Tishchenko is one of the few in his generation who remained committed to the genre of a large &ldquo;pure&rdquo; symphony and succeeded to his genius teacher D. Shostakovich. A special author&rsquo;s contribution to the development of the topic is a detailed consideration of all symphonic works by Tischenko. Such a research has never been held in the history of Russian music before. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the fact that the author proves a close connection between Tishchenko&rsquo;s symphonism with his time and the controversial cultural and social processes suffered by the composers of the sixties. &nbsp;

HISTORY OF SURREALIST ANTI-MUSICALITY IN THE PRACTICES OF INNOVATIVE RUSSIAN POETRY

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Oleg Gorelov
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Russian Poetry ◽  
History Of ◽  
Physical Foundation ◽  
Poetic Practice

The article provides an overview of key studies of surrealist musicality, highlights the problem of non-acceptance by surrealism of music media, focuses on a historical discussion of the semantics and reality of sound itself as a phenomenon. It also analyzes the basic principles for the implementation of the surrealist antimusicality in the newest Russian poetry. Anti-musicality is now recognized as the principle of working with sound, bypassing the composer, audial culture, based on ideas about harmony and composition. It is in this anti-musical meaning that the musical code is used in poetic practices of the late 20th century, which destroy the reference narrative and overcome the principles of the classic surrealistic collage. The innovative poetic practice conceptualizes not so much ordered repetitive fragments of a statement as a pause between them, a silence. Such a quantization of aesthetic matter returns reflection to the theoretical horizon of understanding the medium, reduced to its physical foundation in order to further overcome it

25th volume celebration paper Policies for the aged in the 21st century: more ‘structured dependency’ or the realisation of human rights?

2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER TOWNSEND
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Older People ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Individual Market

By the late 20th century, the plight of millions of older people in many developed countries was regarded as serious and was acknowledged to require concerted cross-national remedial action. Sociologists and social gerontologists only then were beginning to put together explanations rooted in the evolution of social policy and its corresponding institutions. One thesis that attracted support was that the dependency of the aged had been ‘structured’ by long-term economic and social policies. During the final decades of the 20th century, older people were perceived and treated, according to accumulating research evidence, as more dependent than they really were or needed to be. This had been fostered by the emerging institutions of retirement, income maintenance, and residential and domiciliary care. This development had been the responsibility primarily of the State, which tried to deliver welfare but also to accommodate the market. Forms of discrimination against older people had become, or continued to be, as deep as forms of discrimination against women and ethnic minorities. Such ‘institutionalised ageism’ had to be countered. Hopes were invested in anti-discriminatory policies that reflected good reciprocal relationships between the generations in many families and the rights of individuals of any age to human dignity and opportunities to practise their skills. The globalisation of the market and affiliation to neo-liberal policies, together with the simultaneous passage of various instruments of human rights, have changed the nature of the problem, and therefore the debate, during the early 21st century. This paper argues that the release and implementation during and after the Second World War of collective liberal egalitarian values, expressed in many countries in international statements on human rights, as will be shown, had a big impact on the design of public services, including those for older people. If the claims for the elderly in the welfare states of 50 years ago were exaggerated, as we can now safely conclude, the claims for older people today are even more exaggerated – at a time of heightened emphasis on individual rights and individual market powers. The various problems of ‘structured’ dependency persist, and seem set to grow in many parts of the world. Human rights offer a framework of rigorous analysis and anti-discriminatory work. Success depends on good operational measurement, and the incorporation of international and national institutions and policies that reflect those rights.

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