scholarly journals Are We In This Together?: The Polarisation of the British Society and the Marginalisation of Otherness in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet

Porównania ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-154
Author(s):  
Tomasz Dobrogoszcz

Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet—Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer—was written and published at lightning speed, between the 2016 Brexit referendum and Britain’s effective departure from the EU in 2020. The article examines how the novels engage with the issue of Brexit, as they become the chronicle of a grinding cultural process and critically confront the transformation of the British nation. I survey various psychological factors related to the polarisation of the British nation and investigate Smith’s presentation of the way in which the populist propaganda of menace produced by the right-wing media leads to marginalising Otherness. Employing the nomadic theory of the subject developed by Rosi Braidotti, I analyse Smith’s literary strategies used to represent not only post-truth manipulation and institutionalised British xenophobia, but also the actions of people who resist them.

2017 ◽  
pp. 35-46
Author(s):  
Beata Guczalska

Andrzej Wajda was one of those directors who created their actors in the way he allowed them to truly shape his films and theatre performances. The presence of his actors is striking in Wajda’s work, not only in the professional sense but also the human element. On numerous occasions Wajda emphasised that the only moment of true inspiration in his work is in the process of casting. While selecting actors he stayed extremely close to the characters, and in his quest for the right person he asked: “Who, in today’s social and existential situation, should play this character?” In his work he afforded his actors great freedom, which enabled them to develop their talents to the full. However, realising he could not always meet expectations with tried and tested actors, he sought out new faces and made radical changes to his team, which was often a source of frustration for actors. Aware of this lack of fulfillment, Wajda sometimes made it the subject of his films, sometimes returning to actors cast aside years earlier.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Biedenkopf

European Union (EU) climate politics have polarised over the past decade. Poland especially stands out as the EU member state that has most vehemently opposed numerous decisions to increase the EU’s level of ambition, stirring some turbulence in EU climate politics. Yet, with the publication of the European Green Deal (EGD) in 2019, the European Commission has likewise created turbulence in the Polish parliament’s climate debate. This article analyses those debates and identifies three distinct policy narratives: <em>Poland is in a unique situation</em>, <em>Poland pursues an alternative pathway</em>, and <em>climate policy endangers competitiveness</em>. The <em>alternative pathway</em> narrative, which advocates for the continued use of coal while capturing emissions, faded at roughly the same time when the EGD was proposed at the EU level. Simultaneously, the <em>unique situation</em> narrative, which calls for recognition of Poland’s uniqueness in combination with increased (financial) support, became stronger. The analysis confirms the dominance of the governing party’s narratives, but contrary to previous studies, detects nascent polarisation on climate policy between the right-wing political parties, on the one hand, and the centre-right and centre-left parties, on the other.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 446-462
Author(s):  
Mikhail S. Golovin

This article examines the update of ideological foundations of the largest right-wing radical party in Britain (and in the whole of Europe) - the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). The subject of the research is the partys programmatic text, Manifesto for Brexit and Beyond, a document that is not limited to the discussion of Brexit alone. This document appeared at the end of 2019 and, despite the frequent change of leadership in the party during 2020, remained the ideological foundation of the organization after Brexit. The aim of the article is to analyze how the ideological base of the right-wing British radical party was formed in the socio-political realities of the initial period after the states exit from the European Union. The paper presents a discursive analysis of the main ideological document of one of UKIP, as well as identifies the ideological positions of British right-wing radicals at the present stage. Since the research is mainly practice-oriented, the main results are presented the data obtained through discourse analysis using to the method of R. Wodak. The data testify the changes that have been taking place in the discourse of the extreme right in Britain in recent years, as well as the prospects for its evolution in the coming years after Brexit. Studying UKIPs discourse, the author concludes that it forms depending on the political, social and cultural conditions that prevail in modern British society, as well as on the general European context. The article also shows how a modern right-wing radical party constructs its discourse using the most painful issues for the society within the framework of political struggle.


1863 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 271-273 ◽  

The author details the circumstances connected with the discovery of the fossil remains, with the impressions of feathers, in the Lithographic slates of Solenhofen, of the Oxfordian or Corallian stage of the Oolitic period, and of the acquisition for the British Museum of the specimen which forms the subject of his paper. The exposed parts of the skeleton are,—the lower portion of the furculum; part of the left os innominatum; nineteen caudal vertebræ in a consecutive series; several ribs, or portions of ribs; the two scapulæ, humeri, and antibrachial bones; parts of the carpus and metacarpus, with two unguiculate phalanges, probably belonging to the right wing; both femora and tibiæ, and the bones of the right foot.


1983 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 127-148
Author(s):  
C. Stephen Finley

The poet – speaker of Book 1 ofThe Ring and the Bookbelieved that the first two monologues of his grand poem balanced one another. In his preview of the monologues, he writes that Half-Rome and Other Half-Rome are equally unsuccessful in their efforts to find the truth of the murder story. The speakers possess an “opposite feel” for the truth, but each achieves a “like swerve, like unsuccess” (I.883–84). Although Other Half-Rome succeeds in being on the right side of the issue, Browning as poet-speaker considers his defense of Pompilia to be the result only of luck or a “fancy-fit.” This “fancy-fit” is a mood which inclines the speaker to choose Pompilia as it might incline him to choose between two runners in a race according to the colors of their scarves (1.885–92). Browning sets this speech by a Bernini fountain, one where Triton blows water through a conch: “Puffs up steel sleet which breaks to diamond dust” (1.900). The poet may have intended this setting to suggest the way in which he views the language and imagery that Other Half-Rome uses to tell his story. The speaker's mixture of Christian and classical mythology and his concern for the painterly qualities of Pompilia's deathbed scene do suggest an aesthetic temperament. The poet may have considered the speech of such a man to be “diamond dust” signifying nothing. In any case, the poet-speaker of Book 1 concludes his description of Other Half-Rome by saying, with apparent sarcasm, that to this speaker Pompilia “seemed a saint and martyr both” (1.909). This assessment of Other Half-Rome has been the subject of disagreement among commentators on the poem.


Author(s):  
Maciej Mróz

The previous model of the Polish-Ukrainian relations has come to an end, while the new one is in the phase of statu nascendi. The fundamental contradiction of the basic interests of Kiev and Warsaw has worked out and is still relevant up to date. While Ukraine is looking for ways to integrate with the EU and needs a strong Europe, putting on Paris and Berlin, and thus ipso facto focusing on strengthening the European community, Poland has entered the path of euro-skepticism and quasi-Jagiellonian policy. The concept of a good change has triggered the most serious reorientation in foreign policy of Poland over the last quarter of a century. The amazement of the outside observers, also in Ukraine, might be aroused by the fact that Polish Eastern policy has been pursued by the same circle of experts under the previous government of the PO–PSL coalition as well as under the current government of the PiS-led united right. After several years of the right-wing rule the Ukrainian analysts see the growing degradation process of Poland’s significance in Europe, its increasing confrontational tendencies towards countries outside the European Union, including relations with Ukraine. Primarily, it is a political dimension, though, it can be perceived also as a symbolic dimension and symbols mean a lot in politics. Key words: Poland; Ukraine; European Union; NATO; United States of America; Russian Federation; Intermarium; Germany.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 160-172
Author(s):  
A. O. Chetverikov

The paper analyzes the provisions of the legislation and the latest court practice of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regulating the procedure for refusing to issue Schengen visas and other migration permits necessary for foreign scientists to participate in experiments using unique European mega-science facilities, as well as in other scientific events in the EU. The first section "Visa refusal and the right to appeal it in the EU: Historical and comparative legal aspects" examines the formation and initial content of the EU rules on the rationale and appeal of the refusal of Schengen visas, starting with the Schengen agreements of the 1980s and before the adoption of the 2009 EU Visa Code. The second section "Right to appeal against refusal of Schengen and equivalent visas" is devoted to the rules of the 2009 EU Visa Code regarding visas for short-term stays (up to 90 days within a period of 180 days), amended and supplemented by the 2017 EU Court of Justice prejudicial decision as in the case of "El Hassani" regarding the recognition of foreigners’ right to judicial appeal against a visa refusal and, in a broader context, "the right to a fair and adequate consideration of their application" for a visa. The subject of the third, final section "The right to appeal the refusal of visas for long-term stay and residence permits" are the provisions of the latest ECJ court practice (judgment in the case of "M.A." of 10.03.2021), which made it possible to challenge in the courts of the EU Member States refusals to issue even those migration permits that are issued in accordance with national law.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-135
Author(s):  
Borbála Göncz

This paper explores the concepts of Europe, Europeanism and European Union, their meaning to Hungarians, how people define them and how they relate to these concepts through the analysis of qualitative in-depth interviews. The main question is whether the discourse, expressing attitudes towards Europe and the European Union, are of symbolic or utilitarian character. The symbolic way to relate to the EU is based on principles, an ideological or an emotional approach of the subject, while the pragmatic or utilitarian logic is based on rational cost-benefit analysis. The main argument of this current paper is that the way Hungarians tend to relate to the EU is rather utilitarian and it is the utilitarian logic that represents the relevant frame to understand people’s attitudes on the subject.


Author(s):  
S. Astakhova

The presidential elections held in November 2020 in Moldova resulted in the victory of a pro-European candidate Maia Sandu. In Moldova the problem of determining the foreign policy course does not lose its relevance –confrontation between pro-Russian and pro-Western forces does not stop in the country. The main goal of the right-wing forces that came to power is to change the geopolitical vector of Moldova in favor of the EU and the United States. In the near future the Moldovan society is expected to change, and first of all in the field of integration.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Viacheslav Morozov

A defining feature of new nationalisms, with their right-wing populist rhetoric, is the way they exploit the regime of truth prevalent in liberal democratic societies. Their use of the language of democracy, human rights and identity is sometimes hard to differentiate from the mainstream convention. Despite being majoritarian in the way it seeks democratic legitimacy, new nationalist discourse consistently advances demands framed in terms of minority protection. This is done by presenting the existence of ‘our’ nation as threatened by overwhelming forces of neo-liberal globalisation (embodied in the EU, the West or even in ‘the Washington establishment’). By using the Pussy Riot case as an empirical example, this article argues that there is no way of preventing the language of minority protection from being hijacked by ‘predatory identities’ unless one foregrounds the universal dimension of equality and emancipation, as opposed to rights and entitlements associated with particular identities. The key political question today, as always, is how to navigate between the totalitarian disregard of the local and the parochialist concentration on the particular.


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