scholarly journals “The human suffering unmapped”. Joanna Bator’s prose on Wałbrzych in the context of Polish post-resettlement literature of the 1990–2010s

2021 ◽  
pp. 275-295
Author(s):  
Irina E. Adelgeym ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Literary Geography ◽  
Second World

The article is devoted to the depiction of Wałbrzych in the prose of the modern Polish writer Joanna Bator (b. 1968), referring to the generation of children of migrants to the Returned Territories. Driven by the need to re-root in the space of childhood from the perspective of post-memory, they turned to the fate of their ancestors and of former inhabitants of these territories, significantly enriching and expanding the literary geography of Poland. The historical trauma, to the therapy of which the work of these writers serves, is in fact a delayed trauma of migration. It is the experience of the children of people who built their homes on the ruins of lives (both their own and others’) and whose everyday life constantly revealed traces of the expelled Other. In other words, it was the experience of the Second World War. It was lived through not in reality, but in the form of destructive consequences for the psyche and identity. For various reasons, genuine artistic comprehension and realization of the autopsychotherapeutic potential of the unique space of the Returned Territories became possible only after 1989. J. Bator’s prose belongs to the second phase of this process, when the perspective of a nostalgic archaeologist who carefully searches, reads and glorifies the traces of the past (both German and Polish), is devoid of idealization and replaced by the perspective of rigid reflection on the doubling of historical trauma in the space of the Returned Territories.

scholarly journals Returning to the Past: The Germans as a Historical Trauma in Contemporary Czech Prose

Porównania ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Alena Šidáková Fialová
Keyword(s):  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Family Saga ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Second World

This study describes reflections of wartime and postwar historical trauma in contemporary Czech prose, taking into account the issues surrounding Central Europe, which entirely overlap with the traditional confrontation between the Czechs and Germans. It also includes the changing reflections on Germany and the Germans, the Second World War and the subsequent expulsion found in the prose work of the new millennium, the unifying topic being deemed to be the issue of the ambiguous national identification of the protagonists, the detabooization of previously hushed-up subjects and the subject of the Holocaust, particularly in the family saga genre. It also takes into account groups of texts focusing on reflections of anti-German resistance activities, both in the genre of the novel (with detective elements) and in output on the boundaries between fiction and factographic prose.

South Asian Developmental Crisis (Review Article)

1973 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-188
Author(s):  
Rafiq Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Integrated Theory ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Developed World ◽  
Second World ◽  
Made In

Like nations and civilizations, sciences also pass through period of crises when established theories are overthrown by the unpredictable behaviour of events. Economics is passing through such a crisis. The challenge thrown by the Great Depression of early 1930s took a decade before Keynes re-established the supremacy of economics. But this supremacy has again been upset by the crisis of poverty in the vast under-developed world which attained political independence after the Second World War. Poverty had always existed but never before had it been of such concern to economists as during the past twenty five years or so. Economic literature dealing with this problem has piled up but so have the agonies of poverty. No plausible and well-integrated theory of economic development or under-development has emerged so far, though brilliant advances have been made in isolated directions.

“Product Not Available in Pre-War Quantities – but Quality Remains the Same”: Remarks on Advertisements as Historical Sources

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
World War ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Past ◽  
German Press ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

The article focuses on advertisements as visual and historical sources. The material comes from the German press that appeared immediately after the end of the Second World War. During this time, all kinds of products were scarce. In comparison to this, colorful advertisements of luxury products are more than noteworthy. What do these images tell us about the early post-war years in Germany? The author argues that advertisements are a medium that shapes social norms. Rather than reflecting the historical realities, advertisements construct them. From an aesthetical and cultural point of view, advertisements gave thus a sense of continuity between the pre- and post-war years. The author suggests, therefore, that the advertisements should not be treated as a source for economic history. They are, however, important for studying social developments that occurred in the past.

Amnesia, aphasia and amnesty: the articulations of Italian colonial memory in postwar films (1946–1960)

Modern Italy ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Gianmarco Mancosu
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
National Reconstruction ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Second World ◽  
Previous Scholarship

This article aims to expose the political and cultural processes that contributed to the eradication of problematic memories of the Italian colonial period during the national reconstruction following the Second World War. It offers a systematic examination of newsreels and documentaries about the Italian former colonies that were produced between 1946 and 1960, a film corpus that has largely been neglected by previous scholarship. The article first dissects the ambiguous political scenario that characterised the production of this footage through the study of original archival findings. The footage configured a particular form of self-exculpatory memory, which obstructed a thorough critique of the colonial period while articulating a new discourse about the future presence of Italy in the former colonies. This seems to be a case of aphasia rather than amnesia, insofar as the films addressed not an absence, but an inability to comprehend and articulate a critical discourse about the past. This aphasic configuration of colonial memories will be tackled through a close reading of the voice-over and commentary. In so doing, this work suggests that the footage actively contributed to spread un-problematised narratives and memories about the colonial period, whose results still infiltrate Italian contemporary society, politics and culture.

Bedreigde bouwvallen

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 218-234
Author(s):  
PURMER MICHIEL ◽  
HENK BAAS
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
World War ◽  
Conservation And Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
Practical Guide ◽  
Office Space ◽  
Second World

Threatened ruins. Castle remains in the Dutch landscape anno 2019 In The Netherlands, around 80 castle ruins are preserved. In 1997, a book was dedicated to the castle ruin. A year later, one of the authors of this paper investigated castle remains as part of a historical geographical inventory. In 2012, the Dutch State Heritage Agency wrote a practical guide for the conservation and development of castle ruins. In this article, the authors describe the development of ruins in the past 20 years. They tried to investigate the development of the castle ruins since the late nineties and tried to categorize this. Rebuilding of the castle, partly or totally, appeared in almost 10% of all ruins. In other cases, there was attention for the touristic infrastructure around the ruin. In most cases however (68%), the ruins stayed more or less intact, with sometimes careful consolidation or restoration. Sometimes, the surroundings of the ruin changed dramatically with the development of housing, infrastructure or other forms of urbanization. In other examples, historical gardens were restored or reconstructed. There are however several plans for the rebuilding or reconstruction of ruins. These plans often provide the new castle with functions, from wedding location to hotel or office-space. This could be a good development for castles destroyed relatively short ago, i.e. in the Second World War or in de postwar period. Many ruins are however destroyed centuries ago. Given the limited amount of ruins in The Netherlands and the sometimes centuries old development of the landscape and the ruin itself, the authors plea for more attention for the castle ruins as such.

The Belgian national past: Between commemoration and silence

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Rosoux ◽  
Laurence van Ypersele
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The One ◽  
Memory Conflicts ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

This article examines the gradual deconstruction of the Belgian national identity. Is it possible to speak of a de facto differentiation or even ‘federalization’ of the so-called ‘national past’ in Belgium? How do Belgians choose to remember and forget this past? To contribute to an understanding of these issues, the article considers two very different episodes of Belgian history, namely the First World War and the colonization of the Congo. On the one hand, the memory of the First World War appears to provide the template for memory conflicts in Belgium, and thus informs the memories of other tragedies such as the Second World War. On the other hand, the memory of the colonial past remains much more consensual – providing a more nuanced picture of competing views on the past. Beyond the differences between the ways in which these episodes are officially portrayed, the same fundamental trend may be observed: the gradual fragmentation of a supposedly smooth and reliable national version of history.

Seoul and Nanking, Baghdad and Kabul: A Response to Timothy Brook and Michael Shin

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-125
Author(s):  
John Whittier Treat
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Japanese Empire ◽  
World War ◽  
Ethical Judgments ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Security State ◽  
Second World

I begin my rejoinder to Timothy Brook and Michael Shin by reiterating the important question with which Brook ends his piece. “[W]hen Hamid Karzai's government falls in Afghanistan, or Nouri al-Maliki's does in Iraq, who then will be the nation's heroes and who the collaborators?” Questions such as this and other present-day conundrums (including the choices I make living in a national security state) were certainly on my mind when I began thinking about collaboration during the Second World War and particularly within the Japanese empire. The line between then and now is direct and short for me. Timothy Brook himself has been the target of an internet smear campaign assailing his work on Chinese collaboration for purportedly preparing an alibi for American mischief in Iraq and Afghanistan. Paramount among my own thoughts was always: what would I do, were I faced with the choices a Yi Kwang-su, a Liang Hongzhi or a Wang Jingwei was? It seems an irresistible reflex to me that we place ourselves in the position of those in the past who wagered and lost, and rehearse their calculations as our own: judgment of their decisions is as inevitable as it is necessary. The question is not if we will judge—to refuse risks our claims to moral agency—it is how. Timothy Brook, whether he once declined or now hesitates, indeed does make ethical judgments (he is on the record, for example, against advocating “collaboration as a morally positive or politically advisable course” [2008]), and indeed he should. That we have not come to similar conclusions only points to our missing consensus on a moral calculus, and not to the lack of an imperative to possess one.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 271-284
Author(s):  
Ken Hirschkop
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Richard Rorty ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Roland Barthes ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
The Social ◽  
Second World

The conclusion examines the situation after the Second World War. It shows how the linguistic turn in analytic philosophy ended and how the social democratic settlement in Western Europe gave birth to the new linguistic turns known as structuralism. The author explores the former by examining the career of Richard Rorty and the latter by looking at how Roland Barthes combines ideas from Saussure with a project for a radical analysis of French everyday life in the Mythologies. The book concludes with a review of how the various linguistic turns overinvested in the idea of language.

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