scholarly journals Remembering Late Socialism in Autobiographical Novels and Autofictions form Central and Eastern Europe: Introduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. RLS1-RLS14
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Mrozik ◽  
Anja Tippner
Keyword(s):  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Societal Change ◽  
Autobiographical Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Narrative Device ◽  
Contested Meanings ◽  
To Come ◽  
Late Socialism

Since the fall of communism in 1989 and 1990/91 literature has dealt with this epochal societal change, trying to come to terms with the past and assessing its influence on the present. In the last years the focus has turned towards the era of late socialism, that is the 1970s and 1980s. Many writers who attempt to present and reevaluate these decades and their ongoing influence on biographies and societies today grew up or came of age in this era. Our main contention is that different forms of life-writing, especially autofictions and autobiographical novels, have become the dominant narrative device for addressing and narrating the socialist past. Accordingly, the contributions to this cluster explore the era of late socialism, examining its different and often contested meanings not only from the perspective of the past but also from the perspective of today. Thus, we explore the role of autobiographical writing in commemorating the past as well as in demonstrating the demise of socialism, as represented in contemporary literatures in Czech, Polish, Romanian, and Russian.

scholarly journals Role of Creative Industries in the Post-Socialist Urban Transformation

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz ◽  
Michał Męczyński ◽  
Krzysztof Stachowiak
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
The West ◽  
Local Networks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Basic Features

Abstract Over the past two decades the cities in Central and Eastern Europe have witnessed a wide-ranging transformation in many aspects. The introduction of a market-oriented economy after half a century of socialism has brought about deep social, economic, cultural and political changes. The first stage of the changes, the 1990s, involved the patching up of structural holes left by the previous system. The post-socialist city had to face challenges of the future while carrying the ballast of the past. Rapid progress in catching up with the West transformed the city a great deal. Later on, the advent of the 21st century brought a new wave of development processes based, among other things, on creativity and innovation. Hence our contribution aims to explore the role of creativity and creative industries in the post-socialist urban transformation. The article consists of three basic parts. In the first we present the concept of a ‘creative post-socialist city’ and define the position of creative industries in it. We also indicate some similarities to and differences from the West European approaches to this issue. In the second part, examples from Central and Eastern Europe are used in an attempt to elucidate the concept of a ‘creative post-socialist city’ by identifying some basic features of creative actions /processes as well as a creative environment, both exogenous and endogenous. The former is embedded in different local networks, both formal (institutionalised) and informal, whereas the structure of the latter is strongly path-dependent. In the third part we critically discuss the role of local policies on the development of creative industries, pointing out some of their shortcomings and drawing up recommendations for future policy measures.

scholarly journals COVID-19: Anthropocene and Capitalocene Caused Pandemics

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Madhusudan Subedi
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Global Effect ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fundamental Causes ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come

  Most epidemiological studies focus on the direct causes of diseases while wider, social causal factors are ignored. This paper briefly highlights the history of major epidemics and the role of Anthropocene and Capitalocene for the emergence and reemergence of pandemics like COVID-19. Books, journal articles, and statistics offer information that can explain the phenomena. A historical inquiry can inform us about the fundamental causes of pandemics. Human security and ecology are intertwined, and the global effect of pandemics responded to at the national level is inadequate. The lessons from the past and present help us devise effective ethically and socially appropriate strategies to mitigate the threats. If the present crisis is not taken seriously at the global level, the world has to face more difficult challenges in years to come.

‘Quivering yet still’: Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry and the Aesthetics of Attention

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-75
Author(s):  
Claudia Tobin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Still Life ◽  
The Past ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Physical Presence ◽  
The Relationship

When Virginia Woolf sought to evoke Roger Fry’s qualities as an art critic, she reached for the image of him as a humming-bird hawk-moth, ‘quivering yet still’ in his absorbed attention to Post-Impressionist paintings. This chapter argues that modes of ‘active’ stillness and receptive, vibratory states of being were crucial to Woolf’s experience and representation of art. It traces ‘quivering’ as a talismanic word across a range of her fiction and non-fiction, and explores the pervasive figure of the insect in Woolf’s re-imagining of the human sensorium, with particular focus on her essay Walter Sickert: A Conversation (1934), and on Sketch of the Past (1939). The second half of the chapter addresses Woolf’s underexplored biography of Roger Fry and her confrontation with the problem of ‘writing’ Fry under the imperative not to ‘fix’ her subject, but rather to register his ‘vibratory’ non-physical presence. It considers the role of vibration more widely in Woolf’s life-writing and in Fry’s art theory, in the context of twentieth-century spiritualism, Quakerism and new communication technologies. It proposes that by examining the different functions and meanings of still life (visual and verbal) in Woolf’s and Fry’s work, we can further illuminate their approach to the relationship between art and life.

scholarly journals Role of Individual Academics and International Universities in Health Research in Nepal

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-81
Author(s):  
P Simkhada ◽  
E Van Teijlingen
Keyword(s):  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Past ◽  
To Come ◽  
Changes Over Time

Nepal has made progress in health sciences and medical education over the past decade. We believe that there is a need in Nepal for a greater research emphasis on mixed-methods approaches, qualitative research, critical appraisal & systematic reviewing and health economics. Specifically to the discipline of epidemiology, Nepal should consider establishing more and better epidemiological studies, the kind of population-based studies that can identify risk factors, track changes over time at a population level over the decades to come.  We know how important such long-term research is but we are also painfully aware how expensive this kind on long-term research can be.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nje.v2i2.6572 Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 2012;2(2):179-81 

scholarly journals Microtubule Cytoskeleton and Spermatogenesis—Lesson From Studies of Toxicant Models

2020 ◽  
Vol 177 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingling Wang ◽  
Ming Yan ◽  
Siwen Wu ◽  
Baiping Mao ◽  
Chris K C Wong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Structure ◽  
Bisphenol A ◽  
Sertoli Cells ◽  
Environmental Toxicants ◽  
Microtubule Cytoskeleton ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cellular Events ◽  
Per Se ◽  
To Come

Abstract Studies have shown that mammalian testes, in particular the Sertoli cells, are highly susceptible to exposure of environmental toxicants, such as cadmium, perfluorooctanesulfonate, phthalates, 2,5-hexanedione and bisphenol A. However, important studies conducted by reproductive toxicologists and/or biologists in the past have been treated as toxicology reports per se. Yet, many of these studies provided important mechanistic insights on the toxicant-induced testis injury and reproductive dysfunction, relevant to the biology of the testis and spermatogenesis. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that findings obtained from toxicant models are exceedingly helpful tools to unravel the biology of testis function in particular spermatogenesis, including specific cellular events associated with spermatid transport to support spermiogenesis and spermiation. In this review, we critically evaluate some recent data, focusing primarily on the molecular structure and role of microtubules in cellular function, illustrating the importance of toxicant models to unravel the biology of microtubule cytoskeleton in supporting spermatogenesis, well beyond information on toxicology. These findings have opened up some potential areas of research which should be carefully evaluated in the years to come.

scholarly journals The complement system: an evolution in progress

F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 2840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berhane Ghebrehiwet
Keyword(s):  
Complement System ◽  
Pathogenic Microorganisms ◽  
Tissue Destruction ◽  
Contact Activation ◽  
Innate And Adaptive Immunity ◽  
Major Function ◽  
The Past ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Complement System

The complement system, which consists of three independent but interacting pathways, constitutes a powerful arm of innate immunity. Its major function is to recognize and destroy pathogenic microorganisms as well as eliminate modified self-antigens. Although it is a fine-tuned system with innate capacity to discriminate self from non-self as well as danger from non-danger signals, an unwarranted activation can nonetheless occur and cause tissue destruction. To prevent such activation, specific regulators present both in plasma and on the cell surface tightly control it. Data accumulated over the past four decades have also shown that the complement system is capable of not only cross-talk with the activation cascades of plasma––i.e. blood coagulation, contact activation, and the kinin/kallikrein system––but also serving as a bridge between innate and adaptive immunity. It is for these reasons that the various activation steps of the complement system have been recently targeted for therapy to treat diseases in which the role of complement is beyond doubt. This trend will certainly continue for years to come, especially as novel concepts guiding the field into areas never contemplated before are continuing to be discovered.

The role of life histories in an age of apology: A presence of the past?

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lieselot De Wilde ◽  
Bruno Vanobbergen ◽  
Griet Roets
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Western World ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
To Come

Based on an oral history study that retrospectively explores the life histories of former orphans in the city of Ghent (Belgium) after the Second World War, we analyse and critique the role of historical research in the current apology trend. Due to the crucial role of (oral) history in these out-of-home care inquiries, these official public apologies, offered by the state as an attempt to come to terms with the past, deserve some specific academic attention in social work research. By inquiring into historical abuse in child welfare and educational institutions, governments of the Western world attempt to close a rather dark chapter in their national histories. Relying on research insights emerging from our research project with formerly orphaned children, we argue that it is impossible to puzzle together one common historical narrative. Moreover, we discovered that the history of the Ghent orphanages is still very much debated and alive more than 35 years after their doors were closed. In this article, we tease out how life histories can play a role in Western welfare states today. We therefore explore the relevance of the notion of ‘presence’ in order to rethink the relationship between the past and the present.

scholarly journals “You” Reconstructing the Past

Mnemosyne ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Christina Schoenberger
Keyword(s):  
Life Writing ◽  
The Self ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Autobiographical Writing ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Past ◽  
Literary Research ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
Autobiographical Work ◽  
The Impact

Autobiographical writing has been an integral part of literary research for decades. Which innovations does contemporary life writing contribute to the narration of the past? This paper focuses on the impact of narratological characteristics on the reconstruction of memory and self in Paul Auster’s Winter Journal (2012), an innovative autobiographical work which deviates from traditional life writing in that it is written in the second person. Considering Lejeune’s and Genette’s takes on second-person autobiography, this paper examines how the narrative situation in Winter Journal shapes subjectivity and temporality. As both protagonist and observer, the narratee oscillates between a distanced state of (critical) self-reflection and intimacy. This paper argues that by « reliving » the past through a dynamic dialogue with the self and the simultaneously addressed reader, the appellative function and the predominant use of the present tense enable a telescopic encounter with the past.

Time to re-think agricultural phosphorus modelling for the 2020s  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Davies ◽  
Victoria Janes-Bassett ◽  
Martin Blackwell ◽  
Andrew Burgess ◽  
Jessica Davies ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Production Systems ◽  
Agricultural Soils ◽  
Widespread Application ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
The Past ◽  
Soil Systems ◽  
To Come ◽  
Phosphorus Modelling

<div> <p>Phosphorus (P) is critical to our food production systems with many crop systems dependent on continual inputs to meet yield demands. However, a consequence of the widespread application of P to agricultural soils in the past 60 years has led to concerns about the long-term sustainability of P fertiliser supply and to P being transferred from soil systems to watercourses, causing diffuse pollution. This highlights the multi-scaled and interdisciplinary nature of the past, present and future of P management.  </p> </div><div> <p>The aim of this research is to define a starting framework to consider the best ways to develop a model that addresses the contemporary understanding of P processes, integrating the needs of the crop, with biogeochemical and hydrological modelling considerations, going beyond P transfer to the role of P in both food and water challenges.  </p> </div><div> <p>So, this review explores some of the current P models and the future opportunities for expanding their representation of P processes in agricultural systems. This goes beyond nesting existing models and reshapes approaches to posing research and modelling questions to achieve P models that cross disciplinary boundaries and have meaning and usability in practice. As part of this contribution, we welcome modellers and P scientists to come forward and help drive this complex issue of P in agriculture. </p> </div>

Rola jedzenia w budowie mitu Austro-Węgier jako elementu tożsamości środkowoeuropejskiej

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 38-62
Author(s):  
Łukasz Frynia
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Master Thesis ◽  
Culinary Culture

This work deals with the problem of the self-identity of the inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe, and their self-determination in relation to the Austria-Hungary. An important element of this issue is the mythologization of history, also cultural memory about the past that can be shown through the certain fragment of the anthropology of everyday life-cuisine and culinary culture. The Austro-Hungarian myth fixed in culture through cuisine becomes the material of regional identity. The paper contains main conclusions of the master thesis On the search of self-identity in Central and Eastern Europe. The role of cuisine in the construction of Austro-Hungarian myth.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document