scholarly journals 5. The Polka as a Czech National Symbol

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-148
Author(s):  
Daniela Stavělová
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
National Symbol

Stavělová (Czech Republic) discusses how the Polka was established as a Czech national symbol during the middle of the nineteenth century. She analyses a large number of sources that discuss the Polka, tracing the dance from its appearance in Czech national circles in the 1830s to its success in Paris in the 1840s. She discusses its consolidation as a Czech symbol through the work of music composers such as Bedřich Smetana in the second part of the century, arguing that it was first and foremost the name of the dance that carried political meaning: Polka as a cultural product fulfilled this goal to a lesser extent. In this way, Stavělová offers a detailed discussion of how the myth of the Polka became a significant aspect of Czech national culture.

Viktor Vasnetsov’s New Icons

Experiment ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-144
Author(s):  
Wendy Salmond
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Paris Exposition ◽  
The Many ◽  
Modern Orthodox ◽  
Human Hands

Abstract This essay examines Russian artist Viktor Vasnetsov’s search for a new kind of prayer icon in the closing decades of the nineteenth century: a hybrid of icon and painting that would reconcile Russia’s historic contradictions and launch a renaissance of national culture and faith. Beginning with his icons for the Spas nerukotvornyi [Savior Not Made by Human Hands] Church at Abramtsevo in 1880-81, for two decades Vasnetsov was hailed as an innovator, the four icons he sent to the Paris “Exposition Universelle” of 1900 marking the culmination of his vision. After 1900, his religious painting polarized elite Russian society and was bitterly attacked in advanced art circles. Yet Vasnetsov’s new icons were increasingly linked with popular culture and the many copies made of them in the late Imperial period suggest that his hybrid image spoke to a generation seeking a resolution to the dilemma of how modern Orthodox worshippers should pray.

Modern Bulgarian Society and Culture through the Mirror of Bai Ganio

Slavic Review ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 530-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roumen Daskalov
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
National Symbol

This article deals with the fictional character Bai Ganio, who was created by the Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov at the end of the nineteenth century and who has become a sort of national symbol in Bulgarian society and culture. Daskalov presents the various interpretations of Bai Ganio, explores their assumptions and implicit meanings, and then employs the character to illuminate some of the major problems and concerns within Bulgarian society. Metaphorically one might say that the various interpretations of Bai Ganio serve as a mirror for a modernizing Bulgaria or, even better, that Bai Ganio and Bulgaria mutually reflect each other. Yet although the mirror retains the trace of the mirrored object, it obfuscates and distorts it.

scholarly journals Nation in a sheep’s coat: The Icelandic sweater

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gudrun Helgadottir
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
National Culture ◽  
English Only ◽  
National Symbol ◽  
Icelandic Sheep ◽  
Current Design ◽  
Bank Collapse ◽  
Wool Industry ◽  
Made In

The Icelandic sweater is presented and received as being traditional—even ancient—authentically Icelandic and hand made by Icelandic women from the wool of Icelandic sheep. Even so, the sweater type, the so-called ‘Icelandic sweater’ in English, only dates back to the mid-20th century and is not necessarily made in Iceland nor from indigenous wool. Nevertheless, the sweater is a successful invention of a tradition (Hobsbawm & Ranger, 1983), popular among Icelanders and tourists alike since its introduction in the mid-20th century. It has gained ground as a national symbol, particularly in times of crisis for example in the reconstruction of values in the aftermath of the Icelandic bank collapse of 2008. I traced the development of the discourse about wool and the origins of the Icelandic sweater by looking at publications of the Icelandic National Craft Association, current design discourse in Iceland and its effect on the development of the wool industry. I then tied these factors to notions of tradition, authenticity, national culture, image and souvenirs.

Literary Contributions of Catholics in Nineteenth-Century Mexico

1944 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66
Author(s):  
Francis Borgia Steck
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Science And Education ◽  
Real Importance ◽  
The Temple

A Phase of American history that calls for a more adequate appraisal is the role played by Catholics in the cultural life of Mexico during the nineteenth century, from Hidalgo’s dash for independence in 1810 to the collapse of the Díaz regime in 1910. It is commonly believed that during these hundred years Catholics in Mexico were dolefully sitting on the sidelines and sucking their thumbs, wistfully waiting for a chance to enter once more and enrich with their contribution the temple of national culture. So many imagine that Catholics in nineteenth-century Mexico, being fettered politically and black-listed socially, manifested little interest and made no worthwhile contributions along cultural lines. Belonging generally to the so-called “conservative” party in the political arena, they are supposed to have been debarred from the cultured “liberal” circles of the day and for this reason remained inarticulate, contributing nothing of real importance and enduring value to the culture of independent Mexico and exerting no appreciable influence on contemporary literature, art, science, and education.

scholarly journals Corridos, Tequila (and others), and Mexican/Chicano Masculinity

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
Amaia Ibarraran-Bigalondo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Symbol ◽  
Life Issues ◽  
Mexican Identity

The Mexican corrido is one of the most popular cultural manifestations both in the United States and Mexico. From its origins in the mid-nineteenth century, the corrido has dealt with “people’s stuff,” such as war, love, honor, immigration and/or belonging to a land, among other everyday life issues. The corrido is, in short, a symbol of identity and belonging, and can be considered a marker of the Mexican identity on both sides of the border. In this sense, it is to be expected that the corrido, as an expression of “people’s stuff,” voices the relevance of a “national” symbol. In the same way, tequila is regarded, at least internationally, as directly related to “lo mexicano/chicano,” and in many cases also to Mexican/Chicano masculinity. Starting from this premise, the aim of this article is to observe the presence of tequila and its significance as a symbol of “lo mexicano/chicano” in the work of Los Tigres del Norte, one of the most prominent corrido bands, both locally and internationally.

scholarly journals Poezie Wilhelma Przeczka v českých a německých překladech

2018 ◽  
pp. 135-159
Author(s):  
Libor Martinek
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
National Culture ◽  
National Minority ◽  
German Language ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Polish Literature ◽  
Majority Culture

In this article, we are presenting the work of a Polish poet from a Polish minority the Czech Cieszyn Silesia Wilhelm Przeczek (7. 4. 1936 v Karviná, Czechoslovakia - 10. 7. 2006 Třinec, Czech Republic) into the Czech and German language, as the author’s poetry was published not only in journals but also in books. We understand translation as an expression of intercultural communication, and especially in the area of the literature of a national minority, which is undoubtedly a Polish ethnic group in the Czech Cieszyn Silesia, it is a paramount phenomenon comparing the quality of literary life in the area with majority culture (Czech); as far as translations into German are concerned, it shows the interest of translators in the work of a poet from the Polish national minority, without this witnessing the emanation of a typical Polish soul in Polish literature in the Czech Republic and former Czechoslovakia, but it is evidence that it is fully competitive in total Polish national culture.

Interaction and boundary work: Western merchant colonies in the Levant and the Eastern Churches, 1650–1800

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-176
Author(s):  
Cornel Zwierlein
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
Close Distance

European merchants in their factories (‘nations’) in the Eastern Mediterranean under Ottoman rule were not really colonizers; in early modern times, they were somehow privileged guests. However, they deserve an important part in a long-term history of types of ‘close distance’ and forms of segregational coexistence. Different from recent studies that stress a strong overall interaction, understanding, sharing, and exchange between Europeans and Ottoman subjects, it is proposed to distinguish three levels: (1) The daily commercial interaction of Western Europeans with their Ottoman counterparts; (2) the stronger involvement in some politico-religious struggles (the 1724 schism in the patriarchate of Antioch serves as example): also here, one has still to distinguish between real interest in the religious cause and other activities as credit lending; (3) the care for and maintenance by the Europeans of their own Western national culture abroad: these cultural activities served more to (eventually unconsciously) perform ‘boundary work’ and to close up the ‘nation’. These early modern forms of close distance and segregation were only isomorphic but not homologous with later highly conscious colonial and modern imperial forms of contact between ‘West’ and ‘East’ as in the nineteenth-century European settlements in Istanbul.

Victorian Christianity and Emigrant Voyages to British Colonies c.1840 - c.1914

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowan Strong
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
Religious Dimensions ◽  
International Structure ◽  
British Colonies ◽  
The Church

This volume looks at the religious dimensions of the nineteenth-century British and Irish emigration experience, examining the varieties of Christianity adhered to by most British and Irish emigrants in the nineteenth century and consequently taken to their new homes in British settler colonies. It examines a significant aspect of this emigration history that has been overlooked by scholars—the development of an international emigrants’ chaplaincy by the Church of England that ministered to Anglicans, Nonconformists, and others, including Scandinavians, Germans, Jews, and freethinkers. The volume uses the records of this emigrants’ chaplaincy, as well as the shipboard diaries kept by emigrants themselves to give them a voice in this history. Concentrating on the experiences of the emigrant voyages, an analysis is provided of the Christianity of these British and Irish emigrants as they travelled by ship to British colonies. Their ships were ‘floating villages’ that necessitated and facilitated religious encounters across denominational and even religious boundaries. The volume argues that the Church of England provided an emigrants’ ministry that had the greatest longevity, breadth, and international structure of any Church in the nineteenth century. It also explores the principal varieties of Christianity espoused by most British emigrants, and argues their religion was more central to their identity and, consequently, more significant in settler colonies than historians have hitherto accepted. In this way, emigrant Christianity and the Church of England’s emigrants’ chaplaincy made a major contribution to the development of a British world in settler colonies of the British Empire.

Occasions and Nations in Brahms's Fest- und Gedenkspruche

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Minor
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
The World ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Fathers And Sons

Brahms's Fest- und Gedenkspruche have long been discussed and sometimes dismissed as an occasional work. But although many scholars have debunked this designation, pointing out that Brahms wrote the motets with no particular occasion in mind, a more salient description of the composition deserves further investigation: the motets are a work for occasions, rather than an occasional work. This article looks at the repercussions of this distinction by focusing on the motets' orientation around the world of plurals (in Benedict Anderson's words) that was both presupposed and fostered by a national culture of festivity in late-nineteenth-century Germany. For one, the title of Brahms's motets--Spruche--references the contemporary collections of sayings that sought to capture and disseminate the multiplicity of the Volk in the new German Kaiserreich. This emphasis on national identity as a localized, participatory act was well suited to the flurry of commemorative festivities taking place throughout the newly unified Germany; it also finds musical expression in the motets. In particular, Brahms makes programmatic use of the double chorus to illustrate processes of unification, narration, and historical continuity, all of which were crucial strategies in the attempt to buttress Germany's new political identity with mnemonic supports. And by setting biblical texts that promote a contractual memory between fathers and sons, Brahms depicts a community in which collective participation in remembering the national past serves as an optimistic bulwark against the centrifugal antagonisms that would soon beset the young German nation.

The Highland Society of London, material culture and the development of Scottish military identity, 1798–1817*

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Watt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Symbol ◽  
The Military

Abstract The image of the Highland soldier as a brave, loyal warrior was central to nineteenth-century notions of Scottish national identity. This article uses material culture evidence alongside traditional archival sources to provide an interdisciplinary explanation of how the military dimension of Scottish identity was shaped in the early nineteenth century. It finds that it was the responses of the Highland Society of London to Scottish battlefield valour – rather than the actions themselves – that created the enduring popular perception of the Highland soldier as a desirable national symbol and as an icon of empire.

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