Between the Alternate and the Apocryphal

2019 ◽  
pp. 124-138
Author(s):  
Derek J. Thiess
Keyword(s):  
Literary Representations ◽  
The Novel ◽  
National History ◽  
Alternate History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Material History

This chapter explores connections between two treatments of history in science fictional literature—the apocryphal history and the alternate history—as they deal with material place. Theorists (Jameson, Hughes-Warrington) have explored the role of materialist history in our need to create counterfactuals by examining the cityscapes and structures in literary representations of the past. This essay connects the disparate strands of materialism, place, and religious revisionism via Juan Miguel Aguilera’s La locura de Dios. It reads the novel as both an apocryphal adventure to a “lost world” civilization and an alternate narrative of Spanish national history. La locura comments surprisingly self-consciously on the crystalline fragility of the logic holding material history together, threatened as it is by a revisionist, escapist orthodoxy.

scholarly journals Indestructible Pasts and Paranoid Presents: John Franzen against Active Forgetting in Purity

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Cristina Garrigós
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Event ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Personal Archives ◽  
Conscious Process ◽  
Unconscious Desire ◽  
Selection Of

Forgetting and remembering are as inevitably linked as lifeand death. Sometimes, forgetting is motivated by a biological disorder, brain damage, or it is the product of an unconscious desire derived from a traumatic event (psychological repression). But in some cases, we can motivate forgetting consciously (thought suppression). It is through the conscious repression of memories that we can find self-preservation and move forward, although this means that we create a fable of our lives, as Nietzsche says in his essay “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1997). In Jonathan Franzen’s novel, Purity (2015), forgetting is an active and conscious process by which the characters choose to forget certain episodes of their lives to be able to construct new identities. The erased memories include murder, economical privileges derived from illegal or unethical commercial processes, or dark sexual episodes. The obsession with forgetting the past links the lives of the main characters, and structures the narrative of the novel. The motivated erasure of memories becomes, thus, a way that the characters have to survive and face the present according to a (fake) narrative that they have constructed. But is motivated forgetting possible? Can one completely suppress facts in an active way? This paper analyses the role of forgetting in Franzen’s novel in relation to the need in our contemporary society to deny, hide, or erase uncomfortable data from our historical or personal archives; the need to make disappear stories which we do not want to accept, recognize, and much less make known to the public. This is related to how we manage information in the age of technology, the “selection” of what is to be the official story, and how we rewrite our own history

scholarly journals The Rocky Road to the Formation of the Korean Department of the Eastern Section of the Communist International (1919 – first half of the 1920s)

2021 ◽  
pp. 803-815
Author(s):  
Tatiana A. Ornatskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political History ◽  
Main Body ◽  
State Archive ◽  
National History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Far Eastern

The article highlights the process of formation of the Korean Department of the Eastern section of the ICCA under the conditions of existence of the buffer state — the Far Eastern Republic. It was to strive for geopolitical compromise in face of the Civil War and the Allied Intervention. The paper discusses conditions for establishment and reasons for further expansion of the Korean section. On the basis of documents from central and regional archives that are being thus introduced into the first scientific use, the contradictions of the national section formation are shown, the positions of the warring parties and the role of Soviet Russia representatives in the settlement of conflicts are highlighted. The conclusion is made about further directions of work with Korean communists. The past provides an opportunity to take a critical look at the events of a century ago, while the opening of the Comintern archives allows the open press to saturate its content with new data. The main body of unpublished documents on the activities of the Communist International is contained in the fond 495 of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, however, information on some aspects may be found in other federal and regional archives. It is no secret that foreign communists played their role in the foreign policy of Soviet Russia, and their help was big. However, the process of bringing them to work in the interests of the RSFSR has not yet been fully studied. Expediency, cost, and consequences of their work may be arguable, but only one conclusion is allowed: this page of national history should not be forgotten, it has to find its researchers. Recently, the study of the activities of departments and sections of the Communist international has not been popular among researchers either. The notions of ideological work have fallen by the wayside, pushed away by the Soviet past of the Comintern departments and sections. However, in our view, some aspects of the activities of divisions and sections of the Comintern remain relevant.

Lopatina, N. and Fridstein, Y., eds. (2019). ‘Whom thou desertest not, O Genius…’ Goethe in translations by Russian 19th-c. poets. Moscow: Infinitiv: Lingvistika. (In Russ.)

2021 ◽  
pp. 274-279
Author(s):  
G. V. Yakusheva
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
The Novel ◽  
European Literature ◽  
Original Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
Poetic Translation ◽  
Western European

A review of the anthology prepared by N. Lopatina, a renowned Russian bibliographer. The collection includes 187 translations of Goethe’s 78 poems, which are quoted in the original language, and of several poetic fragments from the tragedy Faust, the novel Wilhelm Meister, as well as the cycle West-Eastern Divan, made by 63 Russian 19th-c. poets, representatives of various traditions — from Classicism and Sentimentalism to Symbolism and Acmeism. The collection showcases the high achievements of the country’s school of poetic translation and acute cultural awareness of the Russian society in the 19th c., and focuses on the part of Goethe’s poetic oeuvre that was especially popular with the Russian reader. Another role of the anthology is to bridge a gap in our knowledge and uncover names, often unfairly forgotten, of Russian poets and philologists of the past in their interaction with the Western European literature.

scholarly journals The Role of Dental Professionals in Pandemic Events and Disaster Responses

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangwen Li ◽  
Bei Chang ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
Rui Wang ◽  
Gang Li
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Mass Casualties ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Emergency Responses ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Dental Professionals

Abstract The past 20 years have seen major public health emergencies and natural disasters, including the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak caused by the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2003; the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008; and the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) of 2019, which caused mass casualties, infections, and panic. These also resulted in complex demands for medical resources and information, and a shortage of human resources for emergency responses. To address the shortage of human resources required for these emergency responses, Chinese dental professionals made useful contributions. From this work, deficiencies in emergency response training and opportunities for the expansion of rescue capabilities were identified, and relevant recommendations made.

scholarly journals KAZAKH BATYRY BECOMING AN EXAMPLE OF COURAGE AND HEROISM

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S. Sagatova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Past History ◽  
National History ◽  
Native Land ◽  
The Past ◽  
Self Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cognitive Foundations ◽  
Independent Country ◽  
The Way

Today our independent country is following the path of self-development, paying attention to the cognitive foundations and roots of our national history. The beginning of the striving for the realization of great goals - reveals its essence in connection with the study of the history of the country, native land. Having analyzed the past history, the author in his article, referring to the merit and activities of great personalities who have left a bright mark and contributed to great historical achievements, focuses on the role of their worldview. This marked the beginning of the study of the personality of Kazakh batyrs, who were messengers of spirit and honor on the way to the unity of our country, an example of courage and heroism - an example of the steppe.

scholarly journals The journey of Claire in the works of Gaito Gazdanov: the analysis of the female image of Claire in the novels “An Evening with Claire”, “Hannah”, and “The Fate of Salome”

Litera ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 162-170
Author(s):  
Ziwei Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
Character Type ◽  
Female Image ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Inner World ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Gradual Transformation

  This article is dedicated to the analysis of the female image of Claire and its variant in the works of Gaito Gazdanov. This character type in the works of G. Gazdanov often resembles the past in the present, i.e. an important part of the “lost world” for the protagonist. However, deliberate examination allows following the gradual transformation of the authors attitude towards the character of Claire throughout his creative path. In the novel “Ab Evening with Clair”, the author adheres to priority of that past world over the present, while in the novel of his later period “The Fate of Salome”, the narrator tends to release from the shadow of the past. The underlying cause for such change lies in the transition of the writer from the romantic theurgical worldview towards phenomenal. In the later period, Gazdanov reconsidered the real world and justified the earthly existence due to the fact that submerging into the own inner world can entail loneliness and dissolution “Self” in one’s mind. The goal of this research consists in tracing the transformation of the role of Claire in the works of Gaito Gazdanov, as well as in description of different types of relations between the protatonist and the heroine in order to prove the evolution of the writer's reasoning on the problem of “two-worldness”. The relevance of this article consists in explication of the type of Claire in Gazdanov’s artistic system of “two-worldness” as a literary technique, as well as from the new perspective of studying the evolution the writer’s worldview.  

scholarly journals On Philosophical Themes in Marcel Proust’s Works

2018 ◽  
pp. 78-95
Author(s):  
I. I. Blauberg
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Philosophical Psychology ◽  
Optical Instrument ◽  
The Past ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
The World ◽  
Lost Time

Marcel Proust’s works contain a lot of ideas consonant with the ideas that were actively discussed by philosophers of his time. Many philosophers focused on the issues of perception, memory, will, freedom, personal identity, etc., which constituted an important part of academic curriculum. Proust familiarized himself with the issues studying philosophy at the Lyceum (he was taught by Alphonse Darlu) and at the Sorbonne. In his novel In Search of Lost Time, Proust describes an existential experience of his character viewing these issues from a particular perspective, through the prism of the main character’s lifelong search of his calling. He gradually proceeds from philosophical psychology exploring the interaction of memories and impressions in a particular perception, to philosophy proper, to metaphysics aimed at understanding the truth, at going beyond time. The article traces some moments of this transition, shows that for Proust it is not just the work of memory that is important but the emphasis on those states of consciousness where the present and the past coincide, merge, and thereby we go beyond time, to eternity. The author analyzes some images and signs that accompanied the character of the novel on the way to the realization of his calling. Particular attention is paid to the Proustian interpretation of the role of art in changing and enriching the perception of the world, as well as the importance in human life of a habit in which positive and negative aspects are highlighted. Proust himself believed that a work of art is an optical instrument through which the readers begin to discern in themselves what they would otherwise fail to see. His own novel was such an instrument.

scholarly journals Introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-94
Author(s):  
Daniel Hack
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Alternate History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Continuous Sequence ◽  
Antecedent Condition ◽  
British Culture

Catherine Gallagher's importance as a scholar of nineteenth-century British culture and a historian and theorist of the novel makes the appearance of a new monograph by her an event for Victorianists (among others). This is true even when few of the materials she discusses are, strictly speaking, Victorian, as is the case with her new book, Telling It Like It Wasn't: The Counterfactual Imagination in History and Fiction. In Telling It Like It Wasn't, Gallagher traces the emergence and development of analytic and narrative discourses premised on counterfactual-historical hypotheses. As the author explains, these hypotheses are past-tense, conditional conjectures “pursued when the antecedent condition is known to be contrary to fact,” such as, to take her two major examples, What if the South won the Civil War? and What if the Nazis had invaded Britain? Bringing together what Gallagher calls “counterfactual histories,” which are more analytical than narrative and typically consider multiple unrealized possibilities; works of “alternate history,” which describe one continuous sequence of departures from the historical record but draw their dramatis personae exclusively from that record; and “the alternate-history novel, [which] invents not only alternative-historical trajectories but also fictional characters,” Telling It Like It Wasn't explores the distinctive uses and dynamic interactions of these forms over the past two centuries and considers their implications for our understanding of more conventional fiction and historiography.

The Expansion of Early National History Culture

2020 ◽  
pp. 141-182
Author(s):  
Michael D. Hattem
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Early Republic ◽  
Supportive Relationships ◽  
National History ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Societies ◽  
Early National

This chapter examines the rapid growth in the presence and role of the past in the cultural production of the early republic. The first half of the chapter charts the vast increase in historical cultural production in a variety of print forms and literary genres. The second half of the chapter explores one of the processes behind this increase in production by uncovering an informal network—including historians, antiquarians, poets, essayists, painters, publishers, politicians, and others—that provided supportive relationships for those engaged in historical cultural production. Ultimately, that network, and the support it offered, provided the impetus and model for the institutionalization of history culture in this period through the establishment of the nation’s first historical societies and museums.

scholarly journals The Role of Control Motivation in Germans’ and Poles’ Interest in History

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Bilewicz ◽  
Anna Stefaniak ◽  
Markus Barth ◽  
Marta Witkowska ◽  
Immo Fritsche
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Dimensional Model ◽  
National History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Compensatory Control ◽  
Control Motivation ◽  
And Control

Contemporary societies seem to be obsessed with history. This is reflected in the popularity of historical books, films, and reenactments. In our research, we aimed to assess the specific types of content that interest people when exploring their national histories and the psychological factors motivating such explorations. Following the two-dimensional model of social cognition that points to morality and competence as the main dimensions in individual and group perception, we distinguished interest in competence-related aspects of national history (control) from interest in historical moral actions (moral agency). Two studies performed in Poland and Germany showed that in both countries people’s interest in history is structured in a similar way, in which moral agency and control play essential roles. Additionally, in both countries people reacted to individual control threats with enhanced curiosity about the past moral agency of their nations. We discuss these results within the framework of the model of group-based control and compensatory control processes.

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