The Politics of the Dance Floor: Culture and Civil Society in Nineteenth-Century Hungary

Slavic Review ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 802-823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Nemes
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Dance Floor ◽  
Invaluable Tool

The nineteenth-century Hungarian dance floor provides an invaluable tool for mapping the contours of both an emerging civil society and the political practices of Hungarian nationalism. During the 1840s, consciously “national” costumes, music, dances, and language became de rigueur in all areas of social life, and especially on die dance floor. Because associations and newspapers linked such cultural practices to opposition politics, these balls allowed a large number of men and women usually excluded from public life to display their patriotism and political allegiances. In this way, the diffuse set of ideas, feelings, and allegiances connected witii nineteenth-century liberalism and nationalism spread more widely in Hungary. These developments did not occur without conflict, and an examination of debates surrounding the dance floor reveals widely divergent views on participation in civil society and the boundaries of the nation.

“What Comes From Men and Women Dancing”

2021 ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Sonia Gollance
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Female Agency ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Dance Floor ◽  
The Face ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Fictional Representations

The epilogue connects tropes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of Jews, dance, and modernization with late twentieth- and twenty-first-century representations. Popular works such as Fiddler on the Roof (1964), Dirty Dancing (1987), Rebecca Goldstein’s Mazel (1995), Kerry Greenwood’s Raisins and Almonds: A Phryne Fisher Mystery (1997), Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni (2013), and Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver (2018) reveal the continued efficacy of the mixed-sex dancing trope in fictional representations of Yiddish-speaking Jews. These works are often less didactic than nineteenth-century predecessors; they envision more opportunities for female agency and frequently end happily. Not only is the dance floor a flexible space, the dance trope is a flexible metaphor for the concerns of Jewish communities in the face of cultural transitions. In other words, the trope of Jewish mixed-sex dancing charts the particularities of the Jewish “dance” with modern culture.

An Attempt to Survive from Paralysis: Epiphanies in Dubliners

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-187
Author(s):  
Petru Golban ◽  
Goksel Ozturk
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Background ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Europe ◽  
Individual Existence ◽  
Different Levels

Amid the complexity of concern of the modernist literary discourse in Britain, the thematic nucleus of James Joyce’s writings is formed by certain basic aspects of life, such as individuality, art, religion, nation, language, and his work shows the two hypostases of the author himself as accomplished artist and Irish citizen. In a troubled period in the history of Europe and of his own country, Joyce grasped the sense and the atmosphere of frustration, alienation, futility, chaos, and confusion. The concerns of Dubliners, his first important book, published in 1914, consist in rendering the political and social life of Dublin, the misery of human condition, the theme of exile, the problems of the individual’s existence in an urban background which Joyce saw as paralyzed and, like Eliot, as an expression of a period of crisis in the history of humanity. Joyce intended “to write a chapter of the moral history” of his country, and he chose Dublin as it seemed to him “the centre of paralysis” on different levels which he presented under four aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life. All the fifteen stories of the book express life experiences of the characters that are of unpretentious standing, incapable to fulfil inner potentialities and to establish communication with others. At moments they experience relevant epiphanic realisations, seemingly due to some trivial incidents – by which they receive an apparent perspective of accomplishment – and though they attempt to escape the bonds of everyday life and of their trapping circle of existence, all they get is an acute sense of frustration, alienation, and entrapment. To reveal and compare the thematic status of the epiphany in the short stories with regard to various issues of individual existence and to the use of motifs and symbols that create an increasing complexity of ideas and subjective human reactions represents the main purpose and the essence of the content of the present study.

Mourning Imam Husayn in Karbala and Kabul: The political meanings of ʿAshura in Afghanistan

Afghanistan ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-236
Author(s):  
Robert D. Crews
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Lay People ◽  
The Status ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Ritual Practices

This article explores Afghan Twelver Shiʿi commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn at the Battle of Karbala. It shows how the rites of remembrance and mourning celebrated on ʿAshura in Afghanistan has evolved in important ways from the late nineteenth century to the recent past. More than a pivotal event in the ritual calendar of Shiʿism, ʿAshura has served as an index of Afghan politics—and a field of contestation among state officials, clerical authorities, and the Shiʿi faithful. It has thus been at the center of struggles over the identity of the Afghan nation, the status of the Shia, and ritual practices in public life. Drawing on representations of ʿAshura produced by government authorities, state media, clerics, and lay people, this article examines how different actors have competed to give ʿAshura meaning and to develop distinctively Afghan forms of commemoration.

scholarly journals Citoyenneté et valeurs dans l’Eurafrique

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles-Romain Mbele
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
World Trade ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The World ◽  
Société Civile

Tenter de cerner la question de la «citoyenneté et des valeurs » avec quelque complexité et profondeur dépasse le face-à-face entre l’Europe et l’Afrique. D’une part, dans une série de conférences à l’aube du 21e siècle, l’Unesco s’est demandé « Où vont les valeurs ? » D’autre part, « les liens préférentiels » entre l’Europe et l’Afrique sont désormais sous la juridiction de l’Organisation mondiale du Commerce. De ce point de vue, interroger le statut politique et civique des hommes et des femmes dans le cadre institutionnel et partenarial de l’Eurafrique, c’est en creux se demander quel sort est réservé, par l’économie-monde actuelle, au fait d’être citoyen. Étant donné le déséquilibre qui caractérise l’Eurafrique, ce n’est qu’avec l’engagement actif des citoyens qui votent et participent à une société civile critique qu’un nouveau partenariat favorable aux Africains pourrait s’actualiser. Attempting to plumb the complexity and depth of the issue of citizenship and values goes well beyond the interface between Europe and Africa. On one hand, in a series of communications at the beginning of the 21st century, UNESCO asked itself, “Where are the values?” On the other hand, the “preferential links” between Europe and Africa are henceforth under the jurisdiction of the World Trade Organization. From this point of view, questioning the political and civic status of men and women in the institutional framework and partnership of Eurafrica, means to ask oneself what destiny is reserved, by the current world economy, to the fact of being citizen. Given the disequilibrium that characterizes Eurafrica, it is only with the active engagement of citizens who vote and participate in a critical civil society that a new partnership favorable to Africans could be actualized.

Civil society, municipal government and the state: enshrinement, empowerment and legitimacy. Scotland, 1800–1929

Urban History ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Morton
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Formal Mechanism ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTCivil society remains the most challenging and all-pervading of concepts, yet too rarely is it examined empirically. The potential of civil society is that it better allows understanding of local political structures as well as cross-class associational activity. Its alternatives, while many, are principally ‘public life’ and ‘influence’, both of which have their own highly respected traditions. It is argued here that civil society offers a powerful analysis of structure and action in the urban world, and that it is one mediated by municipal government. To operationalize this definition, this article will introduce three further concepts: ‘enshrinement’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘legitimacy’. Each of these is linked to the relationship of the municipal state with that at Westminster, the formal mechanism through which the stability of civil society in nineteenth-century Britain was negotiated.

Clerical Education in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: The Conciliar Seminaries of Mexico City and Guadalajara, 1821-1910

1980 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The Political ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Church

The nineteenth century represented an era of declining influence for the Catholic church in Mexico, and no aspect of that trend created broader repercussions than the eclipse of the clergy's traditional role in higher education. Before the midcentury civil wars the conciliar seminaries graduated nearly as many laymen as did the public colegios, the majority of which in any case employed priests on their faculties. The seminaries, consequently, forged a vital link between the church and civil society, a link which potentially enhanced the political and social influence of the episcopate.

scholarly journals Self-organization of public life of the Ukrainian people in the second half of the XIXth – the beginning of the XXth century: historiographical map

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-16
Author(s):  
Nataliia Semerhei
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political System ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Public Organizations ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Xxth Century ◽  
The Social

The article analyzes the state of the study in the contemporary historiographical discourse of the problem of self-organization of Ukrainian public life in the second half of the ХІХth – the beginning of the XXth century. It has been found that democratization of the political system and renewal of the methodological tools provided an opportunity for historians to view the social life of the given historical period on the basis of a synergistic methodology of self-organization of social systems. It has been discovered that the historiographical position on the dynamics of social self-organization of the Ukrainians ranging from cultural life to the institution of political parties is considered legitimate among scholars. It has been proved that in contemporary historiography the processes of the contemporary self-organization of the Ukrainian society are considered in three specific historical areas, namely socio-civic, national-political and spiritual-cultural, the relationship between which was sometimes both consistent and synchronous. The development of them demonstrated the emergence of new organizational forms of social self-organization and institutionalization of civil society and political system in Ukraine in the XIXth century. Studying both theoretical and methodological, as well as definite historical dimensions of the Ukrainian national movement, the researchers agree that the cultural and educational content of national revival under the influence of objective circumstances has evolved into political one. Much attention is given to the analysis of the historians’ vision of the content of socio-civic self-organization, which was represented by the development of public organizations and movements grounded on the ideas of civil society but lacked political requirements. Among them scientists single out such factors as hlopomanstvo, social movement, organization "Prosvita", the establishment of Shevchenko scientific society, the publication of socially significant newspapers and journals ("Gromada", "Kievskaia Starina", "Delo", "Zoria"), the establishment of a cooperative movement ("Dnister", "The farmer"). The dynamics of the social organization have determined the politicization of the national movement, which allows scientists to speak about national and political self-organization. Establishment of political parties, active participation of the Ukrainians in the activities of the imperial representative bodies of the government, the spread of social and democratic political ideology, the emergence of political leadership and others are considered its institutional representatives. Researchers emphasize that in the late ХІХth and early XXth centuries, national revival entered the political stage, which became a prerequisite for the beginning of the Ukrainian National Democratic Revolution of 1917–1921. It has been found out that the concept "self-organization" reveals the essence of the socio-political and socio-cultural processes of the time, since the Ukrainians established cultural and educational societies, public organizations and political parties contrary to the imperial and anti-Ukrainian policy of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires. It was outlined that the spiritual and cultural aspects of self-organization were illustrated by the activities of Ukrainian cultural and educational societies, the development of Ukrainian periodicals, the commemoration of the anniversaries of Ukrainian writers and artists, the activities of Ukrainian theater, etc.

Catholic Judaism: The Political Theology of the Nineteenth-Century Russian Jewish Enlightenment

2016 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliyahu Stern
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Jewish Population ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Similar Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
Jewish Populations

“It is true,” conceded the Russian Minister of Education on 17 March 1841, those “fanatics” who held fast to the Talmud “were not mistaken” in ascribing a missionary impulse to his project of enlightening Russia's Jewish population. The Jews’ anxieties were understandable, Count Sergei Uvarov admitted, “for is not the religion of Christ the purest symbol of grazhdanstvennost’ [civil society]?” Since conquering Polish-Lithuanian lands in 1795, the Russian government had been unable to establish a consistent policy for integrating its Jewish population into the social and political fabric of the Empire. Most notably, it restricted Jews to living in what was called the Pale of Settlement, a geographic region that includes lands in present day Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Belarus, and Lithuania. The Jews of the Empire were highly observant, spoke their own languages, and occupied specific economic roles. Buoyed by the reformist initiatives that had begun to take hold in Jewish populations based in western European countries, Uvarov hoped to begin a similar process among Russia's Jews.

Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy F. Walton
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Public Life ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Second Mode ◽  
Political Ideal

Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey is an inquiry into the political practices of contemporary Turkish Muslim NGOs. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Istanbul and Ankara, it examines how Muslim NGOs interrogate statist sovereignty over Islam in Turkey. Muslim NGOs target two facets of state power in relation to Islam: Kemalist laicism and its marginalization of Islam in public life and the state-based production of a homogeneous form of Sunni Islam. In making this double criticism of statist sovereignty over Islam, Turkish Muslim NGOs champion religious freedom as a paramount political ideal. This nongovernmental politics of religious freedom has entailed the naturalization of second mode of power in relation to religion—that of liberal governmentality. It has also sanctioned a romance of civil society as uniquely suited to authentic, nonpolitical modes of belonging—the civil society effect. This nexus of religious freedom, nongovernmental politics, and the civil society effect determines a counterpublic relationship between Turkish Muslim NGOs and statist forms of Islam. The institutions that the book discusses span the dominant sectarian divide in Turkey—that between Sunnis and Alevis. The book develops a broad set of comparisons and contrasts between Sunni and Alevi organizations. On one hand, it argues that Sunni and Alevi NGOs articulate a shared discourse of religious freedom. On the other hand, it attends to the persistent, hierarchical differences between Sunnis and Alevis in Turkey, which situate Sunni and Alevi NGOs unevenly within a broader field of power.

Urban Avenues to Love

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-76
Author(s):  
Tyler Carrington
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Dance Floor ◽  
Modern City ◽  
Modern Methods

The modern city presented an alluring array of new avenues to love and intimacy that had not existed in the small towns that dominated the nineteenth century, and a great many maverick Berliners, including those looking for same-sex love, embraced these in the hopes of finding love and avoiding the loneliness and isolation that could be so oppressive. This chapter examines a variety of modern methods for finding love in the workplace, in apartment corridors, on the dance floor, and at evening balls that were gradually evolving to accommodate the modern world. The chapter concludes by studying the rise of casual dating, which was characterized by less-than-reputable romantic relationships that rarely led to marriage. It suggests that individualistic approaches such as these marked the beginning, however fraught with controversy and risk, of a potential modernization of the nineteenth-century middle-class sensibilities that formed the bedrock of German social life.

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