scholarly journals Red Corpses: A Microhistory of Mass Graves, Dead Bodies, and Their Public Uses

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
François-Xavier Nérard
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Cost

What happens to corpses produced by armed conflicts? This question may seem simple: most bodies are buried, more or less quickly, in mass graves. However, the time between death and the moment when the human remains are inhumed deserves to be studied. This article focuses on the situation in the Urals at the end of the Civil War (1918–1919). The fights between the Bolsheviks and their opponents resulted in many casualties. The Bolsheviks gave a fundamental, and rather unusual, importance to the bodies of ‘their’ dead and attached a specific political significance to them. They developed a politics of corpses, using them in public space to assert their power. The bodies of dead Red fighters were brought back to symbolic places, resulting in impressive public funerals across the city of Yekaterinburg in 1918. Their burial sites became contested territories, protected by the authorities but derided by their opponents. After their final victory in 1919, Bolsheviks displayed their dead as proof of the cost of their struggle. Mutilated bodies were shown to carry the stigmata of sacrifice. The inventory and identification of victims became a central and immediate requirement. Inquiry commissions questioned witnesses and looked for mass burials and abandoned corpses. Mass graves were searched, cadavers exhumed and made visible. The public use of corpses was, however, not limited to identification purposes. The display of dead bodies, which is not unusual in Orthodox culture, took on a special political dimension. There was mass dissemination of the sight of death through these public monuments and the use of photography. We must especially stress the topographical importance of the displayed death: the exhumed bodies were used to tell of victory, to make control of the territory explicit. The memorialisation of some mass graves completed the process. In Yekaterinburg, but also in more distant localities, monuments were erected. They were meant to materialise the sacrifice of so-called ‘communards’ and the peculiar place of the Civil War in the narrative of the new Bolshevik regime, honouring the memory of the dead and mobilising the living.

scholarly journals How Public is Public Art? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Racial Subtext of Public Monuments at Canada’s Pier 21

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-136
Author(s):  
Patience Adamu ◽  
Deon Castello ◽  
Wendy Cukier
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Canadian Multiculturalism

AbstractMuch of the literature on public space focuses on physical inclusion and exclusion rather than social inclusion or exclusion. In this paper, the implications of this are considered in the context of two monuments, The Volunteers/Les Bénévoles, and The Emigrant, located outside the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. These monuments, while perhaps designed to celebrate Canadian multiculturalism, can be read instead as signaling Canada’s enduring commitment to white supremacy, Eurocentricity and colonization, when viewed through the eyes of racialized immigrants. Thus the “public space” becomes exclusionary. In the context in which the monuments are situated, the racial subtext cannot be ignored. This article purports that images, text and placement, regardless of intention, have significant implications on public space and public demeanor.

scholarly journals Democratic Intellect: Freeing Thought for the Democracy To-come

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jafar Mirzaee Porkoli
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Samson Agonistes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Paradise Regained ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Singular Form ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Critique Of Violence

<p><b>The core argument of this thesis is on the aporetic moment/space of decision and the poetics of the to-come in John Milton's works, with the fundamental importance of the individual. For Milton, this moment/space is radically critical and free, and individually problematic, which goes beyond the usual private/public space even though the public aspects and responsibilities of the person's decision demonstrate exceptional significance in the form of public enactment. In Milton's terms, the experience of such an aporetic moment/space of decision is indispensible for those who want to become a "fit reader" and develop the essential qualities and attributes. I will argue that Milton has always written with the desire to highlight and exemplify the absolute singularity of such a moment and experience throughout his life and works, both prose and poetry.</b></p> <p>The thesis will represent its arguments in two sections. The first section, through a consideration of Derrida's arguments in his works (in particular: "The Laws of Reflection: Nelson Mandela, in Admiration," "The Future of the Profession or the Unconditional University," "Force of Law: 'The Mystical Foundation of Authority,'" and "This Strange Institution Called Literature") together with a selection of Milton's writings, mainly prose (including: Areopagitica, Eikonoklastes, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, and Paradise Lost), will examine and identify possible continuities and convergences between the two writers. Such an intimate juxtaposition and close reading of their works has promisingly offered recognition of continuities, convergences, and affinities in their thought in terms of the qualities and attributes of the "fit reader" and the "democratic intellect." In the opening five chapters, the interactive reading highlights fundamental questions and notions for both writers, including the question of exemplarity or singularity, the notion of public space without conditions, the question of justice beyond the law, the critique of violence, and the question of literature as a lawless institution, providing me with the essential terminology to formulate new interpretations of Milton's works, in particular, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.</p> <p>The second part of the thesis uses the conceptions and terms developed in the opening chapters to read the two late poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, as singular examples of Milton's fit reader, the aporetic moment/space of decision, and the poetics of the to-come by setting out the general comparative points between them. The focus of my arguments in these chapters will be on the hypothesis that Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes are both demonstrating the aporetic moment/space of decision - confusingly replete with uncertainties, complexities, and indeterminacies - and the dominant poetics of the to-come as well as arguing for the singularity of the moment, decision, and enactment of the decision in each poem. I will argue that Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes provide outstanding exemplifications of Milton's notion of the "fit reader" developing similar qualities and attributes in common with Derrida's "democratic intellect."Milton's works represent the aporetic moment/space of decision as an ongoing process; it is a singular moment in which uncertainties and indeterminacies produce unresolvable choices, but where a decision must nonetheless be made; it is a moment of "trial" the result of which cannot be known to the individual "fit reader" in advance. Milton's late poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, explore the critical significance of this moment and demonstrate that no certain, fixed, pre-programmed, or predetermined model or frame can be applied to the resolution of aporetic moments of decision in different times, places, and contexts. The "fit reader" is one who radically and critically reads and re-reads aporetic situations, full of inescapable indeterminacies and unresolved choices, and expresses his individual judgement in the singular form of a true decision (not calculation) to advance the possibilities of truth, justice, and humanity.</p>

Wojna na pomniki w Katalonii, czyli co zrobić z upamiętnieniem bitwy pod Ebro

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (0) ◽  
pp. 11-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Biernacka
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Memory ◽  
Political Left ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

War on Memorials in Catalonia. What to Do with Commemoration of the Battle of the Ebro The article discusses the conflicts taking place in public life over interpretation of the significance of places of national memory. The author presents them on the example of the dispute that arose in Spain over a memorial in the Catalan city of Tortosa. It commemorates the Battle of the Ebro, the military operation of the largest scale and consequences during the Spanish Civil War. The opponents of the memorial consider it as a testimony to the victory of Francoism and an unsightly and disgraceful element in the urban tissue. They appeal for its liquidation, while those arguing for its preservation and reinterpretation of the symbolic meaning treat it as an architecturally valuable distinguishing feature of the city. The fate of the controversial memorial does not rest solely in the hands of local authorities, but it has become a subject of political disagreement, disputes among residents and non-governmental activities. They are taking place against a background of the current legal basis of historical memory (Law 52/2007 of 26 December), which was developed by the political Left to compensate for the harm done to the victims of the Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship, and to implement changes in public space in connection with the traces of Francoism. However, its content leaves quite a big decision-making margin to the public authorities as to removing the traces of the regime from reinterpretation.

TOWARD A CRITICAL HISTORICISM: HISTORY AND POLITICS IN NIETZSCHE'S SECOND “UNTIMELY MEDITATION”

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTIAN J. EMDEN
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Intellectual Context

Focusing on the close connection between Friedrich Nietzsche's historical thought and the discourse of German historicism in the second half of the nineteenth century, this article argues in a thick contextual reading that Nietzsche's second “Untimely Meditation,” Vom Nutzen und Nachtheil der Historie für das Leben (1874), needs to be understood as a reflection on the political dimension of historical consciousness, outlining what I shall term a “critical historicism.” In contrast to the standard emphasis on Nietzsche's presumed aestheticism, he is shown to react to rather specific developments within the contemporary intellectual context, such as the establishment of specific historical foundation myths for a new German nation state, exemplified by the public monuments and commemorations of the 1870s, the effect of such foundation myths on the political imagination of historical scholarship, and the intellectual antagonism between Basel's “antimodernism” and the German nation state.

scholarly journals Burmese Attitude toward Chinese: Portrayal of the Chinese in Contemporary Cultural and Media Works

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Zin
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Chinese Migration ◽  
Significant Expression ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Military

This paper argues that since at least the mid 1980s, there has been an observable negative attitude among the people of Burma against the Chinese. Such sentiment is not just transient public opinion, but an attitude. The author measures it by studying contemporary cultural and media works as found in legally published expressions, so as to exclude any material rejected by the regime's censors. The causes of such sentiment are various: massive Chinese migration and purchases of real estate (especially in Upper Burma), Chinese money that is inflating the cost of everything, and cultural “intrusion.” The sentiment extends to the military, as well: the article examines a dozen memoirs of former military generals and finds that Burma's generals do not trust the Chinese, a legacy of China's interference in Burma's civil war until the 1980s. The public outcry over the Myitsone dam issue, however, was the most significant expression of such sentiment since 1969, when anti-Chinese riots broke out in Burma. The relaxation of media restrictions under the new government has allowed this expression to gather steam and spread throughout the country, especially in private weekly journals that are becoming more outspoken and daring in pushing the boundaries of the state's restrictions.

Mass Graves from the Civil War and the Franco Era in Spain: Once Forgotten, Now at the Heart of the Public Debate

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep Gelonch-Solé
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Subject

Since October 2000, mass graves from the Civil War and Franco's dictatorship have become the most visible issue of the process of recovery of historical memory in Spain, as a metaphor for digging up the traumatic past. This paper offers a historical reading of this process, pointing out the importance of recovering the buried bodies to give them a worthy burial, to restore their memory, and to allow families to complete their mourning. Mass graves have been the subject of different interventions: they have been located, marked and dignified, in some cases opened and the human remains exhumed. The graves, previously symbols of silence and oblivion are now sites of mourning and memory. In addition, many forgotten memories have been recovered. The victims of the war and the dictatorship have returned to the heart of the public debate, although not without controversy.

scholarly journals Historical Symbols of Revolution and Civil War in the Public Space of Siberian Cities: the Twists of Memory Politics (1920s – 2010s)

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2 (26)) ◽  
pp. 58-69
Author(s):  
Yekaterina I. Krasilnikova ◽  
Sergey S. Naumov
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Public Space ◽  
The Political ◽  
Memory Politics ◽  
The Public

The article is devoted to the trends of memorializing in monumental forms the memory of heroes and victims of the Civil war in the cities of Siberia on the examples of Past and Present. The subjects of memory politics, who were behind the memorializing processes in this area at different stages of history, are revealed. The political meanings reflected in memorializing acts and discussions connected to them are explicated. There is proposed the periodization of the processes of memorializing victims and heroes of the Civil war in Siberia.

scholarly journals Toppled Monuments and Black Lives Matter: Race, Gender, and Decolonization in the Public Space. An Interview with Charmaine A. Nelson

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Christiana Abraham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
Generational Change ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Racial Injustice ◽  
The Public Sphere

This paper discusses the recent backlash against public monuments spurred by Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in North America and elsewhere following the killing by police of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man in the United States. Since this event, protestors have taken to the streets to bring attention to police brutality, systemic racism, and racial injustice faced by Black and Indigenous people and people of colour in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and some European countries. In many of these protests, outraged citizens have torn down, toppled, or defaced monuments of well-known historic figures associated with colonialism, slavery, racism, and imperialism. Protestors have been demanding the removal of statues and monuments that symbolize slavery, colonial power, and systemic and historical racism. What makes these monuments problematic and what drives these deliberate and spectacular acts of defiance against these omnipresent monuments? Featuring an interview with art historian Charmaine A. Nelson, this article explores the meanings of these forceful, decolonial articulations at this moment. The interview addresses some complex questions related to monumentalization and the public sphere, symbolism and racial in/justice. In so doing, it suggests that monuments of the future need to be reimagined and redefined contemporaneously with shifting social knowledge and generational change.

CIVIL WAR AND PUBLIC DISSENT: THE STATE MONUMENTS OF THE DECENTRALISED ROMAN EMPIRE

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-155
Author(s):  
Emanuel Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Sociopolitical Context

From the tetrarchy onwards, the arches and columns erected in praise of emperors show a distinct change in the ways in which victory in civil war was commemorated or justified. The attitudes towards civil war demonstrated on these monuments also changed according to their location and the attitudes and social mores of those who erected them. From the time of Augustus onwards, in both panegyrical texts and public monuments, victory in civil war had been presented in terms of the defeat of non-Roman combatants. However, by the 4th c., despite protest from the conservative aristocracy, it was possible to commemorate defeat of fellow Romans. This paper suggests that this development reflects both a change in imperial image and in the sociopolitical context of these monuments, whereby the need to establish the legitimacy of imperial rule overrode the traditional concerns of conservative sections of the public.

The Interplay Between Civil War Development and Highly Structured Intergovernmental Organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Tir ◽  
Johannes Karreth
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Intergovernmental Organizations ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Member States ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cost

This chapter defines highly structured intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and examines their temporal and spatial evolution. It then describes the role that these organizations can play during civil war development. We argue that highly structured IGOs have an inherent, vested self-interest in the domestic peace and stability of member-states; the institutional structure and substantial resources that allow them both to act quickly and to be able to alter the cost-benefit calculations of both the government and rebel sides; and an enduring preference for member-states’ internal peace and stability. These features of highly structured IGOs satisfy all three conditions for successful civil war prevention identified in Chapter 2. The chapter further elaborates on why and how highly structured IGOs sanction member-states at risk of civil war and develops our main hypothesis: states’ memberships in highly structured IGOs decrease the risk that low-level armed conflicts escalate to full-scale civil wars.

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