Women, Writing and the Iraqi Ba'thist State

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hawraa Al-Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
The State ◽  
Woman Question ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cultural Resistance ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site ◽  
Material Form

The book examines the trajectory of the state sponsored novel in Iraq and considers the ways in which explicitly political and/or ideological texts functioned as resistive counter narratives. It argues that both the novel and ‘progressive’ discourses on women were used as markers of Iraq’s cultural revival under the Ba‘th and were a key element in the state’s propaganda campaign within Iraq and abroad. In an effort to expand its readership and increase support for its pan-Arab project, the Iraqi Ba‘th almost completely eradicated illiteracy among women. As Iraq was metaphorically transformed into a ‘female’, through its nationalist trope, women writers simultaneously found opportunities and faced obstacles from the state, as the ‘Woman Question’ became a site of contention between those who would advocate the progressiveness of the Ba‘th and those who would stress its repressiveness and immorality. By exploring discourses on gender in both propaganda and high art fictional writings by Iraqis, this book offers an alternative narrative of the literary and cultural history of Iraq. It ultimately expands the idea of cultural resistance beyond the modern/traditional, progressive/backward paradigms that characterise discourses on Arab women and the state, and argues that resistance is embedded in the material form of texts as much as their content or ideological message.

The First Nutcracker, the Enchantment of International Relations, and the Franco-Russian Alliance

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-149
Author(s):  
Damien Mahiet
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Sleeping Beauty ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Revolutionary Era ◽  
History Of

Despite the lively scholarly debate on the place of The Sleeping Beauty (1890) in the political and cultural history of the Franco-Russian alliance in the 1890s, the representation of international relations in the first production of The Nutcracker (1892) has so far received little attention. This representation includes the well-known series of character dances in the second act of the ballet, but also the use of French fashion from the revolutionary era to costume the party guests, the mechanical dolls, the toy soldiers, and even Prince Nutcracker. The fairy-tale world offered a frame that not only promoted the absolutist aspirations of Alexander III's regime, but also solved the symbolic challenge of a problematic alliance between republican France and tsarist Russia. The same visual repertoire informed diplomatic life: four years after The Nutcracker, in 1896, the décor for the state visit of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in France duplicated that of the fairy-tale world on stage.

scholarly journals Plastic (in) Paradise: Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-40
Author(s):  
Michaela Keck
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Historiographic Metafiction ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site

This contribution examines the magic-realist metaphor of the Matacão in Karen Tei Yamashita’s (1990) debut novel Through the Arc of the Rain Forest as a trope that invites us to imagine, reflect on, and explore plastic’s cross-cultural meanings, aesthetic experiences, and materialist implications. I contend that through the Matacão, Yamashita engenders a narrative about, as well as an aesthetic experience of, plastic that is inherently ambivalent and paradoxical. While it provides societies with material wealth and sensual pleasures, it poses at the same time a profound threat to life – human and nonhuman. The main part of the article is divided into two major sections: in the first part, I read Yamashita’s story about the Matacão as historiographic metafiction that parodies the socio-cultural history of plastic and its utopian promises and failures. In the second part, I draw on Catherine Malabou’s philosophical concept of plasticity to explore the Matacão’s material agency, as well as the social mobility and economic connectivity of Yamashita’s human protagonists in their plastic environments. The theoretical perspective of Malabou’s concept of plasticity shifts the focus to the agentic forces of the waste material and allows us to read Yamashita’s Matacão as both a site and material that, notwithstanding its devastating impacts, also holds potentialities for resilience and repair, and even the possibility for an, at least temporary, utopia.

The Archive as a “Collective Project”

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-533
Author(s):  
Nilay Özok-Gündoğan
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
State Government ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Governmental Body ◽  
National Memory ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site

The history of the archive is the history of the state. Or so say conventional approaches to the archives. Until recently, the archive has been seen solely as a site, or rather a repository, of modern state power and governmentality, and a crucial medium for the making and preservation of national memory in the late 19th century. There is a truth to this state-centric perspective: the archive was conceived as a place where governments keep their records; they usually contain a term such as “state,” “government,” or “national” in their names; and they are often funded by and connected to a governmental body.

URBAN FOOTBALL PERFORMANCES: PLAYING FOR THE NEIGHBOURHOOD IN SENEGAL, 1950s–2000s

Africa ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susann Baller
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Urban Youth ◽  
Social Space ◽  
National Football League ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

ABSTRACTIn Senegal, neighbourhood football teams are more popular than teams in the national football league. The so-called navétanes teams were first created in the 1950s. Since the early 1970s, they have competed in local, regional and national neighbourhood championships. This article considers the history of these clubs and their championships by focusing on the city of Dakar and its fast-growing suburbs, Pikine and Guédiawaye. Research on the navétanes allows an exploration of the social and cultural history of the neighbourhoods from the actor-centred perspective of urban youth. The history of the navétanes reflects the complex interrelations between young people, the city and the state. The performative act of football – on and beyond the pitch, by players, fans and organizers – constitutes the neighbourhood as a social space in a context where the state fails to provide sufficient infrastructure and is often contested. The navétanes clubs and championships demonstrate how young people have experienced and imagined their neighbourhoods in different local-level ways, while at the same time interconnecting them with other social spaces, such as the ‘city’, the ‘nation’ and ‘the world’.

scholarly journals Studi Konseptual Museum Negeri Sirisori Islam

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Syahruddin Mansyur
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
The State ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Local Characteristic ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Land Administration ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conceptual Study

Maluku provincial government has the local characteristic as represented in the “pemerintahan negeri” as a unified system of customary communities in Maluku province government areas. It gives an understanding that the land administration system has implications for aspects of customary law relevant to understanding the history of the culture of a country. Therefore, in the context of the preservation of cultural resources, land administration is the collective memory of the people of Maluku that must be preserved. In regard to the preservation of cultural resources, research conducted in the State Islamic Sirisori is expected to summarize the totality of the cultural history of the country Sirisori Islam. Further more, the results of this study is a conceptual study on the establishment of the museum Sirisori Islamic country. Based on the conceptual study, an alternative form of museum management can adapt the form of eco-museum as an attempt to preserve the cultural resources that existin Sirisori Islamic State. The themes that can be displayed in a museum presentation; State History Sirisori Islam, Islamic tradition Sirisori State Society, and the State Archaeological Collection Sirisori Islam.Provinsi Maluku memiliki karakteristik pemerintahan yaitu sistem Pemerintahan Negeri sebagai kesatuan masyarakat hukum adat dalam wilayah pemerintahan Provinsi Maluku. Hal ini memberi pemahaman bahwa sistem pemerintahan negeri memiliki implikasi pada aspek hukum adat yang terkait dengan pemahaman sejarah budaya suatu negeri. Oleh karena itu, dalam konteks pelestarian sumber daya budaya, pemerintahan negeri merupakan memori kolektif masyarakat Maluku yang harus dilestarikan. Dalam kaitan pelestarian sumberdaya budaya tersebut, penelitian yang dilakukan di Negeri Sirisori Islam ini diharapkan dapat merangkum totalitas sejarah budaya negeri Sirisori Islam. Selanjutnya, hasil penelitian ini  merupakan kajian konseptual pendirian museum negeri di Sirisori Islam. Berdasarkan kajian konseptual tersebut,  alternatif bentuk pengelolaan museum dapat mengadaptasi bentuk eco-museum  sebagai upaya untuk melestarikan sumberdaya budaya yang ada di Negeri Sirisori Islam. Tema-tema yang dapat ditampilkan dalam penyajian museum diataranya; Sejarah Negeri Sirisori Islam, Tradisi Masyarakat Negeri Sirisori Islam, dan Koleksi Arkeologi Negeri Sirisori Islam. 

scholarly journals Some aspects of city archaeology in historical context (on the example of Prymorskyj Boulevard in Odesa)

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
Svitlana Ivanova
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
The State ◽  
Original Position ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Cultural Layer ◽  
Modern Cities ◽  
History Of Construction ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site

The study on archaeological sites has some peculiarities when undertaken inside the territories of modern cities. And the reason behind it is not only the usual situation when parts of a site are covered by present-day constructions or cut by communication trenches. Sometimes a stratigraphic position and/or a level of recovery for ancient artefacts are blurred by inherent ambiguity. This is exactly the case, which can be traced for the settlement of ancient times on the Primorsky Boulevard of Odessa. The variability of the level of occurrence of the cultural layer and the virgin soil can be explained by referring to historical documentation. During the design and preparation of the territory for the landing of trees and construction, preparatory work was carried out. The area was cleared and leveled down. In addition, one should keep in mind the relief of the terrain, the presence of slopes, the elevation drop, the leveling of which led to the present ambiguous stratigraphic situation. The cultural layer was also damaged when some soil was withdrawn from its original position from the territory of the former military barracks, which were located here at the beginning of the XIX century in order to strengthen the slopes of the boulevard. These works are recorded in archival data stored in the State Archive of Odessa region. The construction of numerous communications also contributed to the inevitable alterations in the state of the settlement's preservation. Given the available historical information, it is possible that individual archaeological sites can be discovered during the reconstruction of existing buildings located on Primorsky Boulevard. The history of construction and subsequent re-building on the Primorsky Boulevard is linked with the material remains that are stored underground. Consideration of this aspect provides the necessary information on the identification of objects that can be found in archaeological sites situated underneath the modern buildings. There is an obvious and urgent necessity of archaeological supervision for all types of reconstruction or building works, in accordance with existing legislation. This conclusion is relevant not only to the territory of the ancient settlement, but also to its surveillance zone. The construction works should be suspended until the final archaeological research, if archaeological sites would be identified. Key words: Classical age, city archaeology, cultural layer, Prymorskyj Boulevard.

scholarly journals READING TOURS INTO MALAYSIAN NARRATIVES: LOCALES IN THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS AND THE NIGHT TIGER

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swagata Sinha Roy ◽  
◽  
Kavitha Subaramaniam ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Cameron Highlands ◽  
History Of ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Japanese Gardens ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Way

If one has not read local English novels like The Garden of Evening Mists and The Night Tiger, one would never be able to imagine the wonders of locales depicted in these two books. One of the reasons the authors here want to visit a said destination is because of the way a certain place is pictured in narratives. Tan Twan Eng brings to life the beauty of Japanese gardens in Cameron Highlands, in the backdrop of postWorld War II while Yangsze Choo takes us into several small towns of Kinta Valley in the state of Perak in her beautifully woven tale of the superstitions and beliefs of the local people in Chinese folklore and myth in war torn Malaysia in the 1930s and after. Many of the places mentioned in these two novels should be considered places to visit by tourists local and international. Although these Malaysian novelists live away from Malaysia, they are clearly ambassadors of the Malaysian cultural and regional heritage. In this paper, a few of the places in the novel will be looked at as potential spots for the coming decade. The research questions considered here are i) what can be done to make written narratives the new trend to pave the way for Visit Malaysia destinations? ii) how could these narratives be promoted as guides to the history and culture of Malaysia? The significant destinations and the relevant cultural history of the regions will be discussed in-depth to come to a relevant conclusion.

scholarly journals Jødeforfølgelse Med Socialistisk Fortegn. Janina Katz’ Forfatterskab Mellem Polen Og Danmark Med Særligt Henblik På Romanen Putska

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-146
Author(s):  
Karin Wolgast
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
Jewish Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second World

Abstract Introducing life and work of Janina Katz, the article undertakes an analysis and interpretation of her second novel, the autofictional Putska. Born on the second of March 1939, Katz belonged to a renowned Jewish family with numerous members, of whom, however, only her mother and she survived the Second World War. Their extraordinary family history may be traced in practically all of Katz’ writings, as can her Jewish cultural heritage. The novel Putska is no exception. Its composition, characters and the image it gives of life in Cracow are examined in order to make understandable the protagonist’s decision to exile herself from Poland and migrate to Denmark, much like the author herself. 1969, having fled from that revival of anti-Semite harassment which was launched by the political leadership of socialist Poland, Katz was granted asylum in Denmark, where she soon learned the language to a perfection which enabled her to unfold a widely acknowledged literary work which does not cease to speak of her unique life experience. Central perspectives on her life and work include migration, autobiography, Jewishness and social and cultural history of Poland.

Democracy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Political History ◽  
The State ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Democratic Practices ◽  
History Of

This chapter seeks to bring out the interrelated quality of twentieth century discussions of democracy, drawing especially on debates in the 1930s and 1970s. It locates these within the longer history of the British conversation about democracy, a conversation that was both influenced by discussions elsewhere and informed by comparisons with, and imaginings of, other polities. It starts with an examination of the history of debating democracy in Britain and then turns to the British way of doing democracy. It argues that the former is essential to making sense of the latter. It moves on to consider how the British have done democracy, drawing upon an emerging cultural history of democratic practices. The final section offers thoughts on the prospects for the historiography of democracy in Britain, and on what its development so far says about the state of modern British political history.

The “estate topos” of Russian symbolism in the ego-documentary prose by Andrei Bely

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-66
Author(s):  
Elena V. Glukhova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Russian Symbolism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Ideal

The article discusses the modification of the “estate topos” of Russian sym- bolism in Andrei Bely’s memoir prose. The estates Shakhmatovo, Dedovo, Serebrianyj Kolodez played a key role in the cultural history of Russian symbolism. The peculiarity of Bely’s “estate text”, on the one hand, is that he found an original neo-mythological mode in the image of these estates, on the other hand, gave them heterotopic properties. The article shows how the tonality of his memoirs about Alexander Blok changes from the first edition in journal “Notes of Dreamers” (1922) to the last part of his memorial trilogy “The Beginning of the Century” (1932). If in the first version “Shakhmatovo” appears in neo-mythological meaning and a number of significant symbolic universals are realized, then in the latter version this way of representing the estate is practically erased. The image of Alexander Blok as a spiritual and symbolic center of estate cul- ture is changing: if originally he had the folklore features of Ivan Tsarevich, the ideal symbolist poet on a background of nature, and his wife was Tsarevna, the embodiment of Sophia the Wisdom of God, then later Blok appears as a Lord, carried away only by the issues of managing the estate, and his wife gets the features of an ordinary woman. The estate Serebrianyj Kolodez appears as a heterotopic space, and the features of the estate Dedovo are recognizable in the novel “The Silver Dove”.

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