scholarly journals Small Revelations, … Maybe Not Even with an Apocalyptic Tone

Humanities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Anders E. Johansson

This article tries to be funny in a very serious way, following Virginia Woolf’s call in Three Guineas that, in the face of man-made disasters, we may have to make fools of ourselves in relation to common sense. Apocalypses, such as the Anthropocene, climate change, and mass extinction require—like the Second World War that Woolf refused to simplify—a tentative search for knowledge, not controlling and predictable methods in the search for a solution. The article is based on how Jacques Derrida’s discussion with Immanuel Kant regarding how truth should sound before the apocalypse over the years has increasingly come to describe contemporary doxa, within which there is only room for mystagogues, who inaugurate followers in the “real truth” behind “fake news”, or scientisticists, who believe that facts and truth are the same thing. When Derrida shows how these two positions depend on each other, sharing the modern belief that knowledge is associated with development, boundaries and control, he also shows how this narrows knowledge down to the predictable, and, thus, makes it complicit with the mistaken efforts of control responsible for today’s challenges. Against this background, the article analyzes works by the artist, Eva Löfdahl, and links them with questions concerning connections between truth, knowledge, art, and science.

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 895-900
Author(s):  
ELISABETH ALBANIS

A history of the Jews in the English-speaking world: Great Britain. By W. D. Rubinstein, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996. Pp. viii+539. ISBN 0-312-12542-9. £65.00.Pogroms: anti-Jewish violence in modern Russian history. Edited by John D. Klier and Shlomo Lambroza. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xx+393. ISBN 0-521-40532-7. £55.00.Western Jewry and the Zionist project, 1914–1933. By Michael Berkowitz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Pp. xvi+305. ISBN 0-521-47087-0. £35.00.Three books under review deal from different perspectives with the responses of Jews in Western and Eastern Europe to the increasing and more or less violent outbursts of anti-Semitism which they encountered in the years from 1880 to the Second World War. The first two titles consider how deep-rooted anti-Semitism was in Britain and Russia and in what sections of society it was most conspicuous, whereas the third asks how Western Jewry became motivated to support the Zionist project of settlement in Palestine; all three approach the question of how isolated or intergrated diaspora Jews were in their respective countries.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Stefan Collini

George Orwell and William Empson worked closely together at the BBC during the Second World War and they remained friends thereafter. In The Structure of Complex Words (1951) Empson paid surprisingly serious attention to the view of language expounded in Nineteen Eighty-Four, seeing in Orwell's presentation of the meaningless slogans of totalitarianism, such as “War Is Peace,” a challenge to his own more rationalistic analysis of how language works. This article first explores the development of Orwell's thinking about language, including his engagement with Basic English (which Empson helped to propagate); a particularly close, and critical, analysis is given of his celebrated essay “Politics and the English Language.” Orwell's views are then contrasted with Empson's unpacking of the interplay of multiple senses within individual words, demonstrating that even the most extreme propaganda statements need to draw upon and respect the mechanics of meaning as embodied in such words if they are to be persuasive. Intellectual historians have much to learn from these exchanges, as do contemporary analysts of “fake news” and authoritarian bombast more generally.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 189-202
Author(s):  
Marian Łomnicki

W artykule omówiono historię wprowadzenia na ziemiach polskich w okresie po pierwszej wojnie światowej dokumentu poświadczającego tożsamość – dowodu osobistego. Szczegółowej analizie poddano formularz uchwalony rozporządzeniem Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej z 16 marca 1928 r. O ewidencji i kontroli ruchu ludności, czyli ogólnokrajowemu jednolitemu dokumentowi tożsamości zwanemu potocznie dowodem osobistym wzór 28. W tekście omówiono różnice w formularzach występujące w poszczególnych regionach Polski w okresie międzywojennym, a także przykłady wykorzystania formularzy przez władze okupacyjne w okresie Design of the 1928 identification document - concept, execution and transformation The article presents the history of a national identification document in Poland in the period after the First World War. Special emphasis is put on the form adopted by the presidential resolution on March 16, 1928 On registration and control of the movement of people, that is, the single national identification document design no. 28. The text discusses differences between various forms in particular regions of Poland in the inter-war period, and provides the examples of how the forms were used by Nazi authorities during the Second World War and by the authorities after the Second World War.


Horizons ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-89
Author(s):  
Elisee Rutagambwa

When the world came to its senses after the Second World War and reports of the horrors of the Holocaust began to spread, the international community reacted with disbelief. And when reality proved much worse than even the worst nightmare, the world community reacted unanimously with a general outcry: crimes of this magnitude must never happen again. It appeared quite clear that, in the future, the international community would never again remain inactive in the face of such appalling tragedy. Yet, the firm imperative “never again” has become “again and again,” and the same dreadful crimes have been repeated in many parts of the world.


Author(s):  
Diane Frost

The Kru communities of Freetown and Liverpool emerged in response to, and as a consequence of, British maritime interests. Kru were actively encouraged to leave their Liberian homeland and migrate to Freetown, where they came to constitute an important part of its maritime trade. The Kru formed a significant nucleus of Freetown’s seafarers, as well as the majority of ships’ labourers or ‘Krooboys’ that were recruited to work the West African coast. The occupational niche that the Kru eventually came to occupy in Britain’s colonial trade with West Africa had important social repercussions. The Kru were labelled as unusually competent maritime workers by shipowners and colonial administrators, and the Kru encouraged this label for obvious expedient reasons. The gradual build-up of the Kru’s dominance in shipping during the nineteenth century and until the Second World War contrasts sharply with their position in the post-war period. The breaking down of their occupational niche due to circumstances beyond their control had direct social consequences on the nature of their community. Whilst many Kru clubs and societies depended on seafaring for their very existence, the demise of shipping undermined such societies’ ability to survive in the face of increasing unemployment and poverty....


1985 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. G. H. Joffé

The conventional view of the Moroccan nationalist movement argues that its success was rooted in the experience of the Second World War in Morocco. However, this overlooks the critical differentiation in popular response to nationalist ideas that developed over the period from 1926 to independence in 1956. Whereas the pre-war nationalist movement was urban-based, with a strong middle-class and Salafiyyist tradition behind it, and picked up support from other urban groups that suffered from the Great Depression in the 1930s, it consistently lacked the essential concomitant of a broad rural base. This was in part due to the effective control of rural areas maintained by the French administration, but also arose from the development of a new élite in rural areas that had a clear interest in acquisition and control of land. Although this group had antecedents that originated from pre-colonial times, it was the conditions of the Protectorate and the development of a money-based economy which allowed it to flourish while other aspects of indigenous economic activity declined. This group, which may be considered to constitute a ‘kulak’ class, thus had an evident interest in supporting the French Protectorate authorities, and little concern for nationalist aspirations, particularly since it was also closely associated with the French administration of rural areas through its role in the caïdat. It was only when this élite found its economic interests threatened, and realized that the nationalist movement had the support of the Sultan, that its political concerns were redirected. This change occurred in 1947 with the Tangier speech, in which Mohammed V implicitly rejected French tutelage and, by inference, turned to the nationalist movement to support his dynasty. The speech coincided with the end of the consequences of the 1945 famine, which gave the nationalist movement its opportunity to extend its network into rural areas. It was this development, rather than the Second World War itself, that ensured the ultimate success of the Moroccan nationalist movement.


Author(s):  
Meghan Drascic-Gaudio ◽  
Hailey Graham ◽  
Madeleine Howard

Redefining Home: A Story of Japanese Canadian Resettlement in Toronto explores the story of Harold and Hana Kawasoe, a young Japanese Canadian couple, who chose Toronto as their new home in the face of immeasurable loss they, and many other Japanese Canadians faced during the Second World War. Using a co-curation approach to share the Kawasoe story, the exhibit team discovered how community collaboration and the facilitation of diverse experiences can organically create support and success for museums and historic houses. Redefining Home offers a lens through which the strengths and weaknesses of this method can be seen, and this paper further discusses how it can be implemented by others going forward. Igniting community connections and creating platforms for many voices offers museums valuable and important insight into diverse and unique narratives. Keywords: case study, community collaboration, museums, exhibition development, co-curation


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