Renegotiating French Identity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane F. Fulcher
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
German Culture ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Loss Of Autonomy ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Professional Fields

In light of the recent historiography of Vichy, which stresses its initial political concession, competing factions, and then escalating collaboration with the occupant, this book proposes new questions concerning the shifting nature of French cultural as well as political identity. As the occupation advanced, how did those responsible for cultural policies attempt to adapt their conceptions of French values to accord with the agenda of collaboration in all professional fields? How was French cultural identity and its relation to German culture gradually reconceived by both the occupant and by Vichy as the former played an increasingly interventionist role in music, a symbolic stake in the national self-image of both regimes? Employing the theoretical insights of Gramsci and Bourdieu into hegemony and how it is achieved and combated, this book examines the ways in which musical works were fostered or appropriated and transmitted—physically inscribed, framed, and presented during different phases of the regime as specific groups assumed power. As this study concomitantly demonstrates, we find not only accommodation but also resistance among those artists involved with Vichy’s institutions, and especially in music, where new cultural practices, strategies, and modes of communication emerged as musicians confronted the increasing loss of autonomy in their field. They were forced to assume a position along the spectrum from compliance to resistance on the basis of their perceptions, experience, and subjectivity. Some sought to maintain integrity and avoid appropriation while remaining visible, continuing subtly to innovate and incorporate alternative cultural representations proposed by the Resistance.

Identity, Beliefs, and Political Conflict

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giampaolo Bonomi ◽  
Nicola Gennaioli ◽  
Guido Tabellini
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Cultural Conflict ◽  
Cultural Group ◽  
Economic Shocks ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Policy Conflict ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
Social Divide

Abstract We present a theory of identity politics that builds on two ideas. First, when policy conflict renders a certain social divide—economic or cultural—salient, a voter identifies with her economic or cultural group. Second, the voter slants her beliefs toward the stereotype of the group she identifies with. We obtain three implications. First, voters’ beliefs are polarized along the distinctive features of salient groups. Second, if the salience of cultural policies increases, cultural conflict rises, redistributive conflict falls, and polarization becomes more correlated across issues. Third, economic shocks hurting conservative voters may trigger a switch to cultural identity, causing these voters to demand less redistribution. We discuss U.S. survey evidence in light of these implications.

scholarly journals Χορευτική-μουσική ταυτότητα και ετερότητα

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Χρήστος Παπακώστας
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Theory Of Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Positive Perspective ◽  
The Times ◽  
Dynamic Quality

The present dissertation aims at studying dancing and music and the relationship between these two forms of culture in the construction of the cultural identity of the Roma in Heracleia of the Prefecture of Serres. Nowadays, Heracleia is a town with 4,000 residents. Its population has a mixed ethnological composition: Vlachs, natives (Greek speakers, and Slavic speakers), refugees, Sarakachans, Roma and Gypsies. In the past Heracleia was known as Tzumaya and was flourishing both financially and culturally thanks to its geographical position in the times of the Ottoman Empire and thanks to its famous bazaar. Thus, for a more complete understanding of the changes and transitions that took place it is significant to embody history as a new fundamental framework of interpretation. An important research tool for the accentuation of the principal arguments of thedissertation is the space. In this specific experiential paradigm the construction of identities and the distinction between the ethnic groups is also reflected on the organization of space. The neighborhood, the space of the Roma(sedentary gypsies), is juxtaposed to the respective neighborhood of the Vlachs, the market. Thus, the space is not only examined a “geography” but as a historical and dynamic category connected and interacting with culture. The dynamic quality of dancing and music, the ethnic mosaic and the history of Heracleia and the neighboring area as well as the continuous mobility of the Roma musicians invites us to investigate if there is actually a total isomorphism of space and culture. Music and dancing are not seen as static and fixed cultural phenomena but as historical, dynamic and fluid categories that are the object of negotiation of collective identities and variants. Dancing and music are simultaneously products and processes and do not merely reflect the social structures but are closely related to the cultural identity of a group. For the transgression of the dichotomy structure/action we adopt the theory of practice (Bourdieu 1977). In this way, dancing and music become cultural practices, by which the Roma of Heracleia handle their cultural identity in any historical conditions. Especially in the case of the Roma, this approach is even more helpful, because, as a social group with a low social status, within music and dancing they are given the chance to re-determine their identity in relation to the others. That is to say that by applying various practices of resistance, acquiescence, conflict and acceptance, they attempt to give a positive perspective to their cultural identity. In the framework of this dissertation the dancing phenomenon in the neighbourhood of the Roma and the music, as a prominent form of their professional activity, are examined.

scholarly journals The Black Culture Movement and the Black Community

1976 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-214
Author(s):  
John Runcie
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
James Baldwin ◽  
Black Child ◽  
Black Culture ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Skin Bleaching ◽  
African Heritage ◽  
Self Image ◽  
The Media

The problem of defining a coherent cultural identity is one that has confronted generations of Afro-Americans. As part of the justification and defence of slavery and the slave trade many whites rationalized their actions by arguing that all Africans were cultureless savages. The same combination of guilt and arrogance induced them to attempt to suppress and denigrate surviving elements of a culture whose very existence they had already denied. Most black Americans responded to these pressures by rejecting Africa and their African heritage as a source of shame and by trying to deny and to erase their blackness. Malcom X clearly understood this when he proclaimed in 1965: ‘ We have been a people who hated our African characteristics. We hated our black heads, we hated the shape of our noses …, we hated the color of our skin.’ Identification with the dominant white culture took many forms. For some Blacks it involved the use of hair straightening and skin bleaching; for others it meant the elimination of any ethnic quality in their speech, dress, cuisine and religion; for many more it meant a life of morality and hard work lived according to the dictates of the Puritan ethic. The loss of any distinctive cultural identity involved in this process was made worse by the unwillingness of white society to recognize and accept the Afro-American as part of the dominant culture. In these circumstances many blacks found themselves in a cultural limbo without an adequate self-image. White domination of the media meant that they sometimes felt literally invisible. James Baldwin drew attention to this dilemma in a speech delivered in June 1963, when he noted that:A black child born in this country … discovers two terrifying things. First of all he discovers that he does not exits in it, no matter where he looks – by which I mean books, magazines, movies – there is no reflection of himself anywhere … [if] he finds anything which looks like him, he is authoritatively assured that this is a savage, or a comedian who has never contributed anything to civilization.

Is there a place for more Moličre? Cultural policy and metropolitan politics after cultural Keynesianism

TERRITORIO ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 145-151
Author(s):  
Stephen W. Sawyer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
National Scale ◽  
Cultural Planning ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
National Initiatives

In Paris, the rearrangement of the balance between city, periphery and national territory creates tensions also shown in the area of cultural policies. Concentrating on the recent conflict between the Comédie Française and other local cultural actors in Bobigny, this paper shows how national initiatives for cultural planning in the metropolitan region are rooted in a project of democratisation and decentralisation on a national scale, which could be defined as ‘cultural Keynesianism'. The paper maintains that similar processes and tensions are more comprehensible if placed within local cultural ‘scenes' that include places designated for culture as well as other amenities and cultural practices. In this way the event in Bobigny is explained by considering the cultural policies and experiments in participatory democracy within this territorial context.

Political Identity: A Perspective from Cultural Identity

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhan Xiaomei ◽  
Wang Shimin
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Political Identity

Indigeneity

Anthropology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulette F. Steeves
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
Regional Area ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

There are minimally 370 million Indigenous people in the world. The term Indigenous was not used to identify human groups until recently. Indigenous people are often identified as the First People of a specific regional area. Indigeneity as applied to First People came into use in the 1990s, as many colonized communities fought against erasure, genocide, and forced acculturation under colonial regimes. An often-cited definition of Indigenous peoples is one by Jose Martinez Cobo, special rapporteur for the UN Sub-Commission. Cobo’s 1986 report was completed for the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention and Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, thirty-fifth session, item 12 of the provisional agenda, titled, “Study of the Problem of Discrimination against Indigenous Populations.” Cobo described Indigenous people, communities, and nations as groups that have a “historical continuity with pre-colonial societies” within territories they developed, and as communities that “consider themselves distinct from other sectors of societies” now in their territories. Cobo further stressed that Indigenous people and communities are minorities within contemporary populations that work to preserve their ethnic identities and ancestral territories for future generations. It is important to include displaced people whom prior to colonization identified with specific land areas or regional areas as homelands, as well as Indigenous communities that have for decades been in hiding in areas away from their initial homeland areas. Many descendants of Indigenous people were forced to hide their identities for their own safety due to colonization and genocidal policies focused on physical and cultural erasure. That does not make them non-Indigenous. It makes them survivors of genocide, erasure, and forced acculturation. Many Indigenous people are just coming to terms with the impact of ethnic cleansing and the work to reclaim and revive their identities and cultures. Indigenous is both a legal term, and a personal, group, and pan-group identity. Scholars have argued there are at least four thousand Indigenous groups, but that number is likely very low. Indigeneity is not as simple as an opposition to identity erasure or a push back against colonization. Indigeneity is woven through diverse experiences and histories and is often described as a pan-political identity in a postcolonial time. However, that can be misleading, as the world does not yet exist in a postcolonial state, despite ongoing concerted efforts by Indigenous people and their allies in political and academic spheres to decolonize institutions and communities. Diverse Indigenous communities weave Indigeneity through a multifaceted array of space and time to revive identities and cultural practices and to regain or retain land, human rights, heritage, and political standing.

The Galician Paradigm? Post-war Voices of German-Speaking Polish Jewish Survivors1

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Aleksiun
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
German Culture ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Historical Commissions ◽  
Post War ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
Jewish Survivors ◽  
Second World

Abstract This paper examines the experience of Galician-Jewish survivors who were fluent in German and who had developed close ties to German culture before the Second World War. It suggests that looking through the German linguistic lens highlights the multilayered nature of Jewish cultural identity in Galicia and offers an important critical tool with which to understand the distinct ways in which Galician Jews experienced the Holocaust. Using personal accounts, this article analyzes the ways in which complex cultural biographies of Galician Jews shaped their identities as eastern European Jews, Polish citizens, and Holocaust survivors. On the basis of testimonies included in early accounts for the Jewish historical commissions, statements by Jewish witnesses in post-war trials, oral interviews, and memoirs, this article discusses the ways in which Galician Jews remembered their relationship with German culture and how their complex cultural identity shaped their personal trajectories after the liberation.

AUTHOR AND A CHARACTER OF WITOLD GOMBROWICZ IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY OF LITERATURE

2019 ◽  
pp. 334-340
Author(s):  
Kateryna Strohanova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Witold Gombrowicz ◽  
Cultural Process ◽  
General Overview ◽  
Self Image ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Psychological Features

The review of Witold Gombrowicz’s self-image due to questions and tasks of anthropology of literature pro- vides a possibility to make an analysis of such aspects and motivators as family, civilization process, role in national cultural process, position in social formations. Analysis is based on Gombrowicz’s prose, memoirs and personal correspondence. Psychological portrait of character-narrator and author himself – autobiographism is pronounced in each Gombrowicz’s main character – is depicted very clearly and has the signs of emotional influences experienced by the writer in his childhood and further years. These influences have formed Gombrowicz’s philosophical concepts, especially his theory of Form, and deter- mined writer’s position in questions of national and cultural identity. Answers on one of the most important issues that anthropology of literature tries to resolve – for what purpose a writer creates virtual worlds – can be successfully looked for in Witold Gombrowicz’s works. Universalism and ubiquity of self-im- age in all literary works is one of the unique features which makes Gombrowicz a perfect object for anthropology of literature. As several scientists have noted, the whole heritage of Gombrowicz is a one large novel with the same character who faces various circumstances and tries to manage them. Reactions, motivations, positions of this character are usually equal to author’s – Gombrowicz always considered himself as the most important and main character. So Gombrowicz’s works become an extremely fruitful field for literary-anthropological research – the writer writes only about himself, he analyses deeply his psychological features and external influences which motivated his actions and formed his opinions. This research is the beginning of a prospective road – the main questions are claimed, the main vectors are defined and the general overview of problematics is made; the deeper analysis of Gombrowicz’s prose and memoirs with usage of literary-anthropolog- ical instruments and considering of it’s issues demand more expanded study which will shortly appear in Ukrainian Polish studies.

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