scholarly journals The Reconstruction of the European Mind: T. S. Eliot’s Criterion and the Idea of Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Vanheste
Keyword(s):  
Interwar Period ◽  
Specific Role ◽  
The Political ◽  
European Identity ◽  
Hugo Von Hofmannsthal ◽  
Jose Ortega Y Gasset ◽  
European Culture ◽  
European Tradition ◽  
Political Events ◽  
European Values

T. S. Eliot was the founder and editor of the Criterion, a literary and cultural review with a European focus that was published during the interwar period. The Criterion functioned as a platform for intellectuals with a shared perception of European culture and European identity. It was part of a network of European periodicals that facilitated an intellectual exchange between writers and thinkers with a common orientation. Examples of other reviews in the Criterion network were the Nouvelle Revue Française from France, La Fiera Letteraria and Il Convegno from Italy, the Revista de Occidente from Spain (edited by José Ortega y Gasset), and Die Neue Rundschau, the Europäische Revue, and the Neue deutsche Beiträge (edited by Hugo von Hofmannsthal) from Germany. In this article, I investigate the specific role the Criterion network of reviews and intellectuals played as an infrastructure for the dissemination of ideas about European culture during the interwar period. I also discuss the content of these ideas about the ‘European mind’. As to the latter, I suggest that Eliot positioned himself as well as his magazine in the European tradition of humanist thinking. Unfortunately, the Criterion’s ambition for a reconstruction of the European mind would dissipate as the European orientation of the 1920s was displaced by the political events of the 1930s. Eliot and his Criterion network expressed a Europeanism that has often been overlooked in recent research. The ideas discussed in this network remain interesting in our time, in which discussions about European values and European identity are topical. What is also highly interesting is the role cultural reviews played during the interwar period as a medium for exchanging such ideas.

Memorialising Europe

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jan Margry
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
European Identity ◽  
European Values ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Political Unification ◽  
European Form

In the economic and political unification process of Europe, the idea of the creation of a pan-European identity was put high on the political agenda. With the failure of this effort, the emphasis shifted to the apparently less fraught concept of 'shared cultural heritage'. This article analyses how the politically guided rediscovery of Europe's past has contributed to the creation of a 'Religion of Heritage', not only by raising up a political altar for cultural heritage, but also through the revitalisation, instrumentalisation and transformation of the Christian heritage, in order to try to memorialise and affirm a collective European identity based on its Christian past. In the context of this process, the network of European pilgrims' ways appears to have been an especially successful performative form of heritage creation, which has both dynamised Christian roots as a relevant trans-European form of civil religion that has taken shape, capitalising on the new religious and spiritual demands created by secularisation, and responded to the demand for shared - and Christian inspired - European values and meanings in times of uncertainty and crisis.

Richard Sisson and Leo E. Rose. War and Secession: Pakistan, India and the Creation of Bangladesh. New Delhi: Vistaar Publications. 1990. 338 pp.Price Rs 225.00 (Hardbound).

1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-99
Author(s):  
Ziaul Haque
Keyword(s):  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
National Elections ◽  
The Real ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The Creation

After thirteen long years of military dictatorship, national elections on the basis of adult franchise were held in Pakistan in December 1970. The Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and the Pakistan Peoples Party, under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, emerged as the two majority political parties in East Pakistan and West Pakistan respectively. The political party commanding a majority in one wing of the country had almost no following in the other. This ended in a political and constitutional deadlock, since this split mandate and political exclusiveness gradually led to the parting of ways and political polarization. Power was not transferred to the majority party (that is, the Awami League) within the legally prescribed time; instead, in the wake of the political/ constitutional crisis, a civil war broke out in East Pakistan which soon led to an open war between India and Pakistan in December 1971. This ultimately resulted in the dismemberment of Pakistan, and in the creation of Bangladesh as a sovereign country. The book under review is a political study of the causes and consequences of this crisis and the war, based on a reconstruction of the real facts, historical events, political processes and developments. It candidly recapitulates the respective roles of the political elites (both of India and Pakistan), their leaders and governments, and assesses their perceptions of the real situation. It is an absorbing narrative of almost thirteen months, from 7 December, 1970, when elections were held in Pakistan, to 17 December, 1971 when the war ended after the Pakistani army's surrender to the Indian army in Dhaka (on December 16, 1971). The authors, who are trained political scientists, give fresh interpretations of these historical events and processes and relate them to the broader regional and global issues, thus assessing the crisis in a broader perspective. This change of perspective enhances our understanding of the problems the authors discuss. Their focus on the problems under discussion is sharp, cogent, enlightening, and circumspect, whether or not the reader agrees with their conclusions. The grasp of the source material is masterly; their narration of fast-moving political events is superbly anchored in their scientific methodology and political philosophy.

The European identity formation in Ukraine

2017 ◽  
pp. 102-109
Author(s):  
Larysa Kovryk-Tokar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
European Integration ◽  
European Community ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
European Identity ◽  
European Values

Every nation is quite diverse in terms of his historical destiny, spiritual priorities, and cultural heritage. However, voluntary European integration, which is the final aim of political integration that began in the second half of the twentieth century from Western Europe, provided for an availability of large number of characteristics in common in political cultures of their societies. Therefore, Ukraine needs to find some common determinants that can create inextricable relationship between the European Community and Ukraine. Although Ukrainian culture is an intercultural weave of two East macrocivilizations, according to the author, Ukraine tends to Western-style society with its openness, democracy, tolerance, which constitute the basic values of Europeans. Keywords: Identity, collective identity, European values, European integration

scholarly journals SPIRITS, POWER AND THE POLITICAL IMAGINATION IN LATE-COLONIAL GABON

Africa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Cinnamon
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
World War ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Second World

ABSTRACTThrough narratives of an anti-‘fetish’ movement that swept through north-eastern Gabon in the mid-1950s, the present article traces the contours of converging political and religious imaginations in that country in the years preceding independence. Fang speakers in the region make explicit connections between the arrival of post-Second World War electoral politics, the anti-fetish movements, and perceptions of political weakening and marginalization of their region on the eve of independence. Rival politicians and the colonial administration played key roles in the movement, which brought in a Congolese ritual expert, Emane Boncoeur, and his two powerful spirits, Mademoiselle and Mimbare. These spirits, later recuperated in a wide range of healing practices, continue to operate today throughout northern Gabon and Rio Muni. In local imaginaries, these spirits played central roles in the birth of both regional and national politics, paradoxically strengthening the colonial administration and Gabonese auxiliaries in an era of pre-independence liberalization. Thus, regional political events in the 1950s rehearsed later configurations of power, including presidential politics, on the national stage.

Het publiek in de tribune : vormen van politieke informatie

Res Publica ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-470
Author(s):  
Guido Dierickx
Keyword(s):  
Social Problems ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Discriminating Power ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Rules Of The Game

This contribution should be seen as an attempt to retrieve information from restcategories, such as «does not know» and «no answer».  From these, and from other data as well, we constructed 10, mostly summating, indexes of political ignorance. Among them is an index of objective ignorance, that is about political events, persons and situations.  The others aim at more subjective dimensions. Does the respondent feel informed about the political process : about government and party performance, partisan congeniality, modalities of voting, local politics social problems, political issues ?There seems to be some evidence in favor of the following hypotheses.1. The indexes tend to compensate each other: respondents who score low on one index, do not necessarily score low on the next one.2. I t is difficult to ascertain the validity of an index of objective ignorance. Moreover it does by no means express all the (relevant) dimensions of political information.3. A mong indexes of subjective ignorance one should distinguish between «policy» and «political» information ; the latter seems to refer to a situation where strictly political rules of the game, a.o. those of political conflict, prevail.4. Of all indexes the «political issues» index showed the most discriminating power, as well as the most expected associations.

De standenvertegenwoordiging in de Christelijke Volkspartij en de Parti Social Chrétien

Res Publica ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-127
Author(s):  
Jozef Smits
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Political Position ◽  
New Methods ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
General Elections

The in 1945 established Christian Social Party (The Flemish CVP and the French speaking PSC) showed some important differences in comparison with the prewar Catholic Party. The structure of the CVP-PSC was unitary, based upon individual membership instead of the prewar federation of « estates » (standen) . With this unitary structure, the founding fathers of the CVP-PSC tried to avoid the conflicts between the estates, a permanent cause of criticism and disurtity in the Catholic Partyduring the interwar period. In spite of the new organizational structure of the CVP-PSC, new methods of informal recognition of the estates were introduced for the aggregation of their claims and their representation within the party.The way this informal recognition of the estates in the CVP-PSC was solved, is briefly described in the first part of this article. Subsequent to the survey of the evolution of the political position of the estates and their relation to the CVP-PSC, the composition of the lists of candidates in the CVP-PSC for the general elections of 8 november 1981 is discussed.  Special attention is paid to the balancing in number and the ranking ofcandidates from the estates. Finally, the representation of the estates in the parliamentary group of the CVP-PSC is calculated for the general elections of 1974, 1977, 1978 and 1981.

„Balkan-Wien“ – Versuch einer Verflechtungsgeschichte der politischen Emigration aus den Balkanländern im Wien der Zwischenkriegszeit (1918–1934) / “Balkan Vienna” – Reflections on an Histoire croisée of Political Emigration from the Balkans to Vienna during the Interwar Period (1918–1934)

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 268-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Jens Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Interwar Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
External View ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Press ◽  
Mental Map

Abstract This paper follows “Balkan Vienna”, a media phenomenon as well as a media construct created both by the Viennese press and from the perspective of the Balkans themselves. The decline of the once brilliant capital of the great empire into a hotbed of revolutionaries and terrorists was recorded in Belgrade with scorn and fear. In Vienna, the press addressed these events in terms that sought to distance the capital from the southeast. However, at the same time the Viennese press admired the political activists from the Balkans, exoticising them as heroes. Thus, the press externalised Austrian domestic contradictions through their discussions of Balkan politics. By reporting scandal and sleaze, the press perpetuated the image of Vienna as a refuge for revolutionary activities and “typical Balkan” violence. “Balkan Vienna” is thus a social and political place, one of local, national, transnational, Balkanic and European linkages. As such, it is part of a new discourse, which relocates the internal and external view of Vienna and Austria on the mental map of Europe.

scholarly journals DANUBE AND THE FACILITATION OF NAVIGATION ON DANUBE

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Ciprian Beniamin Benea ◽  
Adina Secară OniĹŁa
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
The Political ◽  
Indirect Connection ◽  
Iron Gate ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Gate System ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Technical Solutions

With 2857 km in length, the quiet Danube quietly tells Europe’s history. We only must be aware of its story. Since ancient times it was connected with empires, expansion, and navigation. The Romans fully understood its role, and proceeded accordingly. They made it their border, but used it for transporting goods and military, too. After the Dark Ages, all European affairs have been in one way or another connected and influenced by the Danube. Romania’s modern history was influenced by the evolution of international problems connected to this river. The Moldavia and Wallachia 1859’s unification in a single state – Romania – had lot to do with the Danube and it was involved in London’s interests in the Oriental Question. The paper presents shortly the way the legal framework regarding the Danube was developed, and what was Romania’s role in facilitating navigation on the Danube. The main data which inspired this work – regarding both the political-legal aspects, and the technical solutions used to facilitate navigation on Danube – are based on earlier writings and studies of Romanian thinkers such as Antipa, Baicoianu, Dascovici and Gogeanu. The evolution of these aspects has a direct or an indirect connection with the evolution of political events and the economic development in all European states, but their importance is crucial especially for those countries which are located in the Danube’s basin. The main text regarding the political aspects related to the Danube is the Belgrade Convention, which has been the general framework under which riparian countries come together to collaborate and to solve the technical impediments for navigation, such as those imposed by the building of the Iron Gate System. At the same time, this paper signals the role of education in understanding the Danube’s role for riparian countries, and for their possible evolution in connection with this river.

scholarly journals Ernst Jünger e o demônio da técnica: modernidade e reacionarismo

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (35) ◽  
pp. 246-273
Author(s):  
Victor de Oliveira Pinto Coelho
Keyword(s):  
Interwar Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
Revolutionary Movement ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Political Mythology ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Sacrifice

ABSTRACT The theme of this article is Ernst Jünger’s work in the interwar period, especially the essay The Worker (1932). Our focus is to point out, in the Jüngerian appropriation of technique, its character of anti-liberal political mythology. We dialogue with the political and intellectual horizon of the time (including authors such as Simmel, Kracauer and Benjamin), seeking to establish a problematization framework about the technique in Germany, where also emerges the so-called “Conservative Revolutionary Movement.” We point out in Jünger’s work the relationship between the “type” or “figure of the worker” and the notion of the sacrifice of individuality in favor of the total mobilization of technique, in the terms of reactionary modernism. Finally, as there are no references to authors and works in The Worker, we raise the hypothesis of an underlying dialogue with the intellectual tradition of Romanticism by confronting Jünger’s work with the theme of “asymptotic completion” (Lacoue-Labarthe) -the impossibility, in modern times, of sustaining a pre-established harmony.

scholarly journals The (No-)Public Space. Reviewing the Transformation of Al-Qaed Ibrahim's Urban Image

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-192
Author(s):  
Iman Hegazy
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Image ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Public spaces are defined as places that should be accessible to all inhabitants without restrictions. They are spaces not only for gathering, socializing and celebrating but also for initiating discussions, protesting and demonstrating. Thus, public spaces are intangible expressions of democracy—a topic that the paper tackles its viability within the context of Alexandria, case study Al-Qaed Ibrahim square. On the one hand, Al-Qaed Ibrahim square which is named after Al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque is a sacred element in the urban fabric; whereas on the other it represents a non-religious revolutionary symbol in the Alexandrian urban public sphere. This contradiction necessitates finding an approach to study the characteristic of this square/mosque within the Alexandrian context—that is to realize the impact of the socio-political events on the image of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square, and how it has transformed into a revolutionary urban symbol and yet into a no-public space. The research revolves around the hypothesis that the political events taking place in Egypt after January 25th, 2011, have directly affected the development of urban public spaces, especially in Alexandria. Therefore methodologically, the paper reviews the development of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square throughout the Egyptian socio-political changes, with a focus on the square’s urban and emotional contextual transformations. For this reason, the study adheres to two theories: the "city elements" by Kevin Lynch and "emotionalizing the urban" by Frank Eckardt. The aim is not only to study the mentioned public space but also to figure out the changes in people’s societal behaviour and emotion toward it. Through empowering public spaces, the paper calls the different Egyptian political and civic powers to recognize each other, regardless of their religious, ethnical or political affiliations. It is a step towards replacing the ongoing political conflicts, polarization, and suppression with societal reconciliation, coexistence, and democracy.

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