scholarly journals Remembering Yugoslavia: Board Game Monopoly and Cultural Memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
Zala Pavšič
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Board Game ◽  
Board Games ◽  
Physical Attributes ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The article is dedicated to exploring the relationship between board games and cultural memory, the board game in question being a version of Monopoly which was published in Yugoslavia in 1986. To address this question, I conducted several interviews with interlocutors who used to play the Yugoslavian version of Monopoly and grew up in the eighties or in the nineties. Apart from exploring Monopoly as a metaphor and showing the specifics of the Yugoslavian version, the article aims to outline the potential of a board game to reproduce traces of cultural memory and how these traces are interpreted differently according to the generational and socio-historical background of the interlocutors included in my research. Moreover, the purpose of my article is to show that board games should not be analyzed only in terms of their physical attributes, fields and the playing cards they include, but also with regard to their reception.

scholarly journals Playing with the Anthropocene: Board game imaginaries of islands, nature, and empire

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Fair
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Board Game ◽  
Environmental Intervention ◽  
Game Play ◽  
Board Games ◽  
Presence And Absence ◽  
The Relationship

The figure of the island as a metonym for the planet is central to many allegories of the Anthropocene. These allegories build upon pre-existing discourses of islands as remote, vulnerable, and timeless, and often portray contemporary island nations as helpless, doomed, and disposable. This article focuses on one allegorical terrain that has received limited discursive and cultural analysis: analogue board games. Board game representations of islands are relevant to island studies both due to the popularity of island themes and because of the resonances between common island imaginaries and the form of board game play itself. Looking at three explicitly island-themed board games (Taluva, Vanuatu, and Spirit Island), I explore the extent to which these games reiterate or contest discourses of islands as sites of ahistorical insularity and alterity. I investigate the presence and absence of islanders in these fictional landscapes, the relationship between these ludic cartographies and imaginaries of ecological collapse and environmental intervention, and the articulations of nature, humanity, and empire that are literally at play. Particularly in the case of Spirit Island, these board game representations reflect the potential for the figure of the island to be reconfigured in order to imagine the Anthropocene otherwise.

scholarly journals On Oblivion: the Case of Yugoslavian Monopoly

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-122
Author(s):  
Zala Pavšič
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Board Game ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Board Games

This article on the Yugoslavian version of the board game Monopoly is based on the assumption that things make people. In accordance with this a concept, the contribution begins with a historical overview of the development of this game in the United States, from its origins when it spreads around the country as a popular game, to the current day, when Monopoly is marketed a leading corporation in the field of board games, Hasbro. The popularity of the game is also evident from its presence in the public space in the form of metaphors: because of its emphasis on trading, it is sometimes referred to “greed”, and in the Balkans it can also serve as a metaphor for the nation state.In the memories of my interlocutors who helped me with their testimonies, the Yugoslav version of Monopoly is associated with pleasant memories: especially of childhood, youth and relatives or friends with whom they used to play the game. In my interviews I focused on two topics which did not play such a significant role in the testimonies of the interlocutors, but were, however, common in the testimonies of interviewees who got acquainted with the game as children: to the question of the supposed superiority of Slovenia, as Bled and Bohinj were the most expensive properties, and the presumption that Monopoly is a game which can reproduce cultural memory, in this case knowing the geography of the former common state. The thesis on Slovene superiority proved to rely on generations to which my interviewees belonged, since it appeared especially in the answers of the interlocutors who were born in the late 1980s. Hence, I assume that this thesis was more likely a projection of the outside reality of my interlocutors into the game than vice versa.Analysing the answers of my interlocutors more thoroughly, I reached the conclusion that Monopoly often appeared as the first reference through which they heard about a certain resort in the regions of the former Yugoslavia. This means that Monopoly contained traces of cultural memory which other sources of our everyday lives, education and upbringing ceased to transmit.

scholarly journals On Oblivion: the Case of Yugoslavian Monopoly

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-122
Author(s):  
Zala Pavšič
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Board Game ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Board Games

This article on the Yugoslavian version of the board game Monopoly is based on the assumption that things make people. In accordance with this a concept, the contribution begins with a historical overview of the development of this game in the United States, from its origins when it spreads around the country as a popular game, to the current day, when Monopoly is marketed a leading corporation in the field of board games, Hasbro. The popularity of the game is also evident from its presence in the public space in the form of metaphors: because of its emphasis on trading, it is sometimes referred to “greed”, and in the Balkans it can also serve as a metaphor for the nation state.In the memories of my interlocutors who helped me with their testimonies, the Yugoslav version of Monopoly is associated with pleasant memories: especially of childhood, youth and relatives or friends with whom they used to play the game. In my interviews I focused on two topics which did not play such a significant role in the testimonies of the interlocutors, but were, however, common in the testimonies of interviewees who got acquainted with the game as children: to the question of the supposed superiority of Slovenia, as Bled and Bohinj were the most expensive properties, and the presumption that Monopoly is a game which can reproduce cultural memory, in this case knowing the geography of the former common state. The thesis on Slovene superiority proved to rely on generations to which my interviewees belonged, since it appeared especially in the answers of the interlocutors who were born in the late 1980s. Hence, I assume that this thesis was more likely a projection of the outside reality of my interlocutors into the game than vice versa.Analysing the answers of my interlocutors more thoroughly, I reached the conclusion that Monopoly often appeared as the first reference through which they heard about a certain resort in the regions of the former Yugoslavia. This means that Monopoly contained traces of cultural memory which other sources of our everyday lives, education and upbringing ceased to transmit.

scholarly journals Influencing Attitudes and Preferences Toward Climate Change using a Multi-Player, Transportation Themed Board Game

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Xiaoyi Kjorven
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Board Game ◽  
Life Choices ◽  
Board Games ◽  
Effective Combination ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Game Board

Traditional tabletop board games have soared in popularity in recent years, and used often as tools for education and entertainment. Board games are an especially engaging format for studying themes of collective-action problem solving. This study looks at one of the most complex collective-action problems of this generation, climate change, and evaluates how individual attitudes and preferences may be altered by playing a board game specifically designed to influence how people relate to an issue. The board game Wheels was introduced and taught to 18 participants, who engaged in five separate playtesting sessions where observation, survey and interview data were collected. The study evaluates participants' attitudes and preferences toward certain transportation and climate change topics before and after playing the game. The game showed promise in changing players' preferences toward certain modes of transportation - increasing preferences toward electric vehicles and cycling, and decreasing preference towards gas powered cars. These findings indicate that the effective combination of select climate change game mechanics in a highly personalized theme may produce an engaging and entertaining experience that has the potential to transcend the game board and impact players' outlook upon real life choices.

scholarly journals The First Catholic Bible in Chinese: Gabriele Allegra and His Translation

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Raissa De Gruttola
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Study ◽  
Study Centre ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Christian missionaries play an important role in the history of the relationship between China and Europe. Their presence in China has been widely explored, but little attention has been paid to the role played by the Bible in their preaching. From 13th to 19th century, although they did not translate the Bible, Catholic missionaries preached the Gospel orally or with catechisms. On the other hand, the Protestant missionaries had published many version of the Chinese Bible throughout the 19th century. It was only in the 20th century that the Franciscan friar Gabriele Allegra decided to go to China as a missionary to translate the Holy Scriptures into Chinese. He arrived in China in 1931 and translated from 1935 to 1961. He also founded a biblical study centre to prepare expert scholars to collaborate in the Bible translation. Allegra and his colleagues completed the translation in 1961, and the first complete single-volume Catholic Bible in Chinese was published in 1968. After presenting the historical background of Allegra’s activity, a textual analysis of some passages of his translation will be presented, emphasizing the meanings of the Chinese words he chose to use to translate particular elements of Christian terminology. This study will verify the closeness of the work by Allegra to the original Greek text and the validity of some particular translation choices.

De verbeelding van moeras en veen

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 292-310
Author(s):  
Lesley Penné ◽  
Arvi Sepp
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
German Language ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Border Regions ◽  
Language Area ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The Representation of Marsh and Bog: Figurations of the Marshy Soil as a Topos of Community in Contemporary German-Language Belgian Literature Literature from border regions is often characterised by a specific transcultural poetics that reflects the liminal as discourse and experience. In contemporary German-language prose from East Belgium (‘Ostbelgien’), the topological representation of swamp and moor occupies an important place. We will show how swamp and moor express the complex definition of national and regional identity of the German-language area in Belgium and become relevant topoi in regard to cultural memory. Literature can be seen as a privileged medium of criticism for expressing the pressures of the unspoken and the closed and for initiating intra-community public discussions. Through a cultural-historical analysis of the various figurations of bog and moor, we will examine how the relationship between landscape and community is represented and conceived in contemporary Germanophone Belgian literature.

Medievalist double consciousness and the production of difference: Medieval bards, cultural memory and nationalist fantasy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Davies
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Double Consciousness ◽  
English Poet ◽  
Thomas Gray ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter interrogates the relationship between medievalist cultural memory and nationalism in Britain and Europe. Exploring work by the English poet Thomas Gray, the Welsh poet and critic Evan Evans, the Hungarian poet Janos Arany, the Icelandic scholar Grímur Jonsson Thorkelín and the Danish poet, historian and educator Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, this chapter explores how ideas of the medieval past are used to generate ideas of community and exclude some people, ideas and traditions from the future.

Allusions and Illusions

2019 ◽  
pp. 193-208
Author(s):  
Melissa Eppihimer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Ur Iii ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

The visual legacy of Akkadian kingship in Mesopotamia was the product of a series of individual engagements with Akkadian images and memories that collectively suggest a shift over time from direct engagement with Akkadian models to mediated access to Akkadian models. Beyond consolidating the ideas presented in earlier chapters, chapter 6 opens up further lines of inquiry into the relationship between cultural memory and images in the ancient Near East. First, memories of the Akkadians in Hittite Anatolia raise the possibility of a visual legacy in Hittite art. Second, the Akkadian legacy is compared to the legacy of the Ur III kings. In the latter, a set of late Neo-Assyrian “basket-bearer” steles display interpictorial links to Ur III foundation figures.

“Bled in, Letter by Letter”

2020 ◽  
pp. 173-202
Author(s):  
Daniel Y. Kim
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Foreign Student ◽  
Korean American ◽  
Japanese Americans ◽  
Diasporic Identity ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
American Authors ◽  
Multidirectional Memory ◽  
Do So

This chapter examines how Susan Choi’s The Foreign Student and Chang-rae Lee’s The Surrendered negotiate the ethical and political complexities that shape the relationship between Koreans who directly experienced the trauma of war and Korean American authors who have constructed literary memories of that event. These are novels that are engaged in the cultural process that Marianne Hirsch has termed “postmemory.” These works constitute exemplary postmemorial texts that refrain from making the trauma of the war into the essentialist foundation of an ethnonationalist conception of Korean or Korean diasporic identity. These novels do so by highlighting the artifice of their constructions of memories that only belong, properly speaking, to those who experienced the war. In so doing they enact a form of postmemory that involves a kind of translation that is structured by approximations, interpolations, and gaps. Choi’s The Foreign Student is particularly noteworthy for gesturing as well toward the Korean War’s significance for Japanese Americans and African Americans without engaging in a problematic politics of racial comparison. This novel theorizes a mode of cultural memory that resonates not only with Michael Rothberg’s concept of “multidirectional memory” but also with Alexander Weheliye’s notion of “racializing assemblages.”

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