scholarly journals Liminal lieux de mémoire

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-90
Author(s):  
Andrew McGregor

This article examines the representation of postcolonial memory in Tony Gatlif’s 2004 film Exils / Exiles. The constant movement that occurs in the film through travel, music, and dance reinforces the permanent dislocation of the film’s pied-noir and beurette protagonists. The film’s road-movie narrative represents, on the one hand, a gravitational pull away from the French Republican integrationist ‘centre’ towards an increasingly complex and diverse landscape of cultural identities linked by France’s colonial history, and on the other, a sense of nostalgia for an Algeria that no longer exists and may never have existed. In so doing, Exils represents modern metropolitan France as a dynamic and polycentric postcolonial space whose lieux de mémoire can and should be positioned not only in geographical and cultural territories that lie outside its contemporary national borders, but also in the liminal spaces that characterize the migrant experience. In line with the title of Gatlif’s film, the protagonists find themselves in a state of permanent exile, both from Algeria and from France. The ‘destination’ of the return to cultural origin, Algeria, emerges as a fundamental but nevertheless mirage-like lieu de mémoire that, notwithstanding its cultural and geographical significance, serves primarily to facilitate a deeper understanding by the protagonists of their personal and collective identity that has long been internalized in the unanchored liminal space of the postcolonial migrant journey.

Literator ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Van Zyl

'I am becoming someone completely different …': the utilisation of liminality in Vaselinetjie (Little Vaseline) by Anoeschka von Meck The concepts of liminality, transition and borders are utilised extensively in “Vaselinetjie” by Anoeschka von Meck (2004). This is especially the case regarding her use of characterisation, focalisation, time and space (including place and landscape) in the construction of identity. As a liminal character, Vaseline finds herself in different kinds of liminal spaces on a regular basis, like the children’s home, which is foregrounded in the novel, as well as in consecutive preliminal, liminal and postliminal phases. The children’s home is an essentially liminal space, but from the perspective of Vaseline it is firstly gradually transformed into a place to which meaning is attached, and secondly to a landscape of belonging, as she expresses her solidarity with the scorned group of children in the home. On the one hand the children’s home is characterised by a certain liminal essence, but on the other hand it can be regarded as “a realm of pure possibility” (Turner, 1967:97).


Author(s):  
James Meffan

This chapter discusses the history of multicultural and transnational novels in New Zealand. A novel set in New Zealand will have to deal with questions about cultural access rights on the one hand and cultural coverage on the other. The term ‘transnational novel’ gains its relevance from questions about cultural and national identity, questions that have particularly exercised nations formed from colonial history. The chapter considers novels that demonstrate and respond to perceived deficiencies in wider discourses of cultural and national identity by way of comparison between New Zealand and somewhere else. These include Amelia Batistich's Another Mountain, Another Song (1981), Albert Wendt's Sons for the Return Home (1973) and Black Rainbow (1992), James McNeish's Penelope's Island (1990), Stephanie Johnson's The Heart's Wild Surf (2003), and Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip (2006).


Finisterra ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (78) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cayetano Espejo Marín

From the early 1960s onwards, Spain and Portugal have maintained far-reaching programs for the exchange of electric power. These contacts have afforded, on the one hand, an increase in the security of electricity supply for both countries and, on the other, a better exploitation of their particular energy resources. The likely launching of the Iberian Electricity Market in April 2004 will lead to a new phase in the relations between Portugal and Spain. The new Market is based on three essential elements: i) the expansion of electric links along their shared national borders, ii) the setting up of a lone Operator for the single Iberian Market and iii) the coordination of the two Operators that exist nowadays, RED ELÉCTRICA DE ESPAÑA and REDE ELÉCTRICA NACIONAL. The Iberian Electricity Market will be the first to comprise countries of the European Community only and it will generate one-tenth of the electric power consumed in Europe, being the fourth largest producer.


Author(s):  
Manuel Jiménez Sánchez ◽  
Raúl Álvarez Pérez ◽  
Gomer Betancor Nuez

El movimiento de los pensionistas en 2018 supuso la primera movilización multitudinaria basada en una identidad colectiva de personas mayores en España, y mostró una capacidad de contestación popular sin precedentes en el tema de las pensiones. Este trabajo indaga en el proceso de configuración de la identidad colectiva como estrategia analítica que permite entender la aparición y la naturaleza (exitosa) de la movilización. Siguiendo la conceptualización de Melucci, este proceso se analiza desde una doble perspectiva. Por un lado, como estrategia de actores colectivos que persiguen articular la contestación popular a la política de pensiones puestas en marcha durante la Gran Recesión. Aquí, el análisis se centra en identificar el proceso organizativo en el que se sientan las bases identitarias del movimiento, y que se extenderían con éxito en la fase posterior de contestación masiva. Por otro lado, se presta atención a la naturaleza de la identificación entre los propios pensionistas como resultado de procesos de aprendizaje durante sus experiencias de movilización. Para la primera perspectiva, el trabajo se basa en informaciones obtenidas en noticias de prensa sobre las actividades de protesta y en documentos producidos por las organizaciones del movimiento. La perspectiva individual de los participantes se fundamenta en el análisis de los discursos obtenidos en entrevistas personales focalizadas a participantes. Este doble enfoque, como estrategia organizativa intencionada y como proceso de aprendizaje durante la experiencia de la movilización, ofrece informaciones clave para comprender no solo el proceso, inédito en España, de construcción de una voz propia de los pensionistas sino también para indagar en los procesos de aprendizaje y cambio actitudinal que implican para los participantes corrientes. En un sentido más amplio, esta estrategia de análisis permite igualmente, por un lado, ubicar el proceso de movilización de los pensionistas en una trayectoria temporal más amplia de contestación popular y, en particular, vincularlo a los legados del ciclo de movilización que protagonizó el 15-M. Por otro lado, también permite destacar esos procesos de contestación como espacios de aprendizaje en los que se modelan actitudes, valores y demás elementos de la cultura de protesta. The pensioners' movement in 2018 was the first mass mobilization based on a collective identity of older people in Spain, and showed an unprecedented capacity for popular contestation on the issue of pensions. This paper inquires into the process of collective identity configuration as an analytical strategy that allows us to understand the emergence and (successful) nature of the mobilisation. Following Melucci's conceptualization, this process is analysed from a double perspective. On the one hand, as a strategy of collective actors seeking to articulate popular contestation to the pension policies implemented during the Great Recession. Here, the analysis focuses on identifying the organizational process in which the identity bases of the movement are established and, which were successfully extended in the subsequent phase of mass protest. On the other hand, attention is paid to the nature of the collective identification among pensioners themselves as result of learning processes during their protest experiences. The analysis of the organizational configuration of the movement is based on information obtained from press reports on the protest activities and documents produced by the movement's organizations. The individual perspective of the participants relies on the analysis of the discourses obtained in focused interviews with participants. This dual approach, as an intentional organizational strategy and as a learning process during the mobilization experience, provides key information to understand not only the process, unprecedented in Spain, of building a voice for pensioners, but also to investigate the learning processes and attitudinal change involved for ordinary participants. More broadly, it also allows, on the one hand, to place the process of mobilization of pensioners in a broader temporal trajectory of popular contestation and, in particular, to link it to the legacies of the cycle of mobilization in the wake of the 15-M movement. On the other hand, it also allows us to observe protest as learning spaces in which attitudes, values, and other elements of the culture of protest are modelled.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1,2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrien Guyot

While the cultural identities of Latin America, Québec and the Antilles have long been forged around a single reference, namely to their European past, they currently show signs of rupture and heterogeneity. Thinkers from Québec (Sherry Simon, Pierre Nepveu, Gérard Bouchard), the Antilles (Glissant, Chamoiseau, Confiant) and Brazil (Bernd) have been revisiting the concepts of origin and space from a completely different perspective. No longer would Europe be the anchor of their totalitarian-shaped cultural identity; the roots and origins of this identity construction would have to be found elsewhere, in a new environment perhaps, embracing the modernity and diversity that are celebrated in the concepts of hybridity, transculturalism, creolization, which all slowly lead to a mythical crossroads: America.However, the establishment of a symbolic relation with the American territory remains somewhat problematic as the concept of Americanity relies on diverse discourses which can be contradictory at times. In this essay, I aim to shed light on the trendy concept that Americanity has become. On the one hand, I will point out the ambiguity that surrounds the concept, and on the other hand, I will briefly explain how the different perspectives in the reappropriation of the American space could lead to the establishment of America as a shared elsewhere.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuuli Anna Mähönen ◽  
Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti

The present study among Ingrian-Finnish remigrants (N = 153) from Russia to Finland examined the effects of anticipated discrimination in the pre-migration stage on the way intergroup relations are perceived and multiple cultural identities are formed in the post-migration stage. First, the results indicated that anticipated discrimination in the pre-migration stage affected perceived discrimination, permeability of group boundaries, and group status legitimacy in the post-migration stage. Second, anticipated discrimination in the pre-migration stage was not directly associated with any of the identities in the post-migration stage, but it was indirectly associated with national identification, via perceived discrimination and permeability of group boundaries. Perceived discrimination and impermeability of group boundaries in the post-migration stage were associated with lower levels of remigrants’ national (Finnish) identification in the new homeland. Third, the perceived legitimacy of Ingrian-Finns’ low status was associated with increased Russian minority identification. The findings extend previous research on the effects of anticipated intergroup contact on actual intergroup encounters on the one hand, and on the effects of perceived discrimination, status legitimacy, and permeability of group boundaries on national and ethnic identification among immigrants, on the other.


2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Rucht

Since its beginnings in 1890, the First of May (hereafter Mayday) was meant to symbolize the presence and power of the workers' movement. Throughout its history, this day served two purposes for the movement. On the one hand, the workers took to the streets to let their voices be heard in marches, rallies, and various other public gatherings. Thus, Mayday was proclaimed as a "day of struggle", a recurrent opportunity for the movement to symbolically flex its muscles and make claims to further the workers' cause. On the other hand, Mayday also helped strengthen internal bonds and maintain the collective identity. For this purpose, the workers came together—usually after the public performances in the morning or early afternoon—to sing and drink as though they were family. This two-fold character of a "day of struggle" and a "day of festivities"' still can be found in many Mayday events.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Kutash

There is an analogy between two types of liminality: the geographic or cultural ‘outside’ space of the Marrano Jew, alienated from his/her original religion and the one he or she has been forced to adopt, and, a philosophical position that is outside of both Athens and Jerusalem. Derrida finds and re-finds ‘h’ors- texte’, an ‘internal desert’, a ‘secret’ outside place: alien to both the western philosophical tradition and the Hebraic archive. In this liminal space he questions the otherness of the French language to which he was acculturated, and, in a turn to a less discursive modality, autobiography, finds, in the words of Helene Cixous, “the Jew-who-doesn’t know-that-he-is”. Derrida’s galut (exile) is neither Hebrew nor Greek. It is a private place outside of all discourse, which he claims, is inevitably ethnocentric. In inhabiting this outside space, he exercises the prerogative of a Marrano, equipped to critique the French language of his acculturation and the western philosophy of the scholars. French and Hebrew are irreconcilable binaries, western philosophy and his Hebrew legacy is as well. These issues will be discussed in this paper with reference to Monolingualism of the Other and Archive Fever as they augment some of his earlier work, Writing and Difference and Speech and Phenomena.


Author(s):  
Justin O. Delacour

The external behaviors of the preeminent Western power are much more ambiguous than mainstream IR theories predict because none of the mainstream camps have an accurate conception of the relations between Western states and their cultures. On the one hand, neorealists fail to explain how the culture of a Western power will tend to discourage the state from behaving in ways that are openly dissonant with the core symbols of its professed liberalism. On the other hand, it is fairly commonplace for Western media to facilitate their states’ casual deviations from a liberal foreign policy course by obfuscating the existence of such deviations. To solve the puzzle of a Western power’s ambiguous foreign policies, we must explore the practical implications of co-constitution, according to which state interests and cultural identities mutually shape each other and can never be fully autonomous from each other. This study conducts such an exploration in the context of U.S. policy to Latin America, particularly around the failed coup in Venezuela in 2002.


Author(s):  
Tonio Hölscher

Greek and Roman societies were strongly rooted in and intentionally based on their authoritative pasts, made visible in monuments and “lieux de mémoire.” For a precise understanding of these phenomena, a theoretical distinction is introduced between the knowledge of tradition and the memory of a paradigmatic past, exemplifying both categories by testimonies of the age of Augustus. Specific commemorative capacities are explored, on the one hand, in places of mythical and historical memory in Athens and Rome and, on the other hand, in political monuments from classical and Hellenistic Greece to republican Rome and the Roman Empire. The distinction serves to underline the potentially aggressive character of collective identity based on public memory.


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