scholarly journals Contemporary History of Indonesia between Historical Truth and Group Purpose

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Anzar Abdullah

<p>Contemporary history is the very latest history at which the historic event traces are close and still encountered by us at the present day. As a just away event which seems still exists, it becomes controversial about when the historical event is actually called contemporary. Characteristic of contemporary history genre is complexity of an event and its interpretation. For cases in Indonesia, contemporary history usually begins from 1945. It is so because not only all documents, files and other primary sources have not been uncovered and learned by public yet where historical reconstruction can be made in a whole, but also a fact that some historical figures and persons are still alive. This last point summons protracted historical debate when there are some collective or personal memories and political consideration and present power. The historical facts are often provided to please one side, while disagreeable fact is often hidden from other side. The article aims to discuss some subject matter of contemporary history in Indonesia as they are printed in history textbook for school, along with varies issues. The article will make correction about context of some issues that they actually used as discussion topic among teachers of history. In the last part of this article, it will outline on how we respond to contemporary history of Indonesia. Conclusion is made that in context of contemporary history in Indonesia, it found two interests, i.e. for historical truth and group purpose.</p>

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
David Caballero Mariscal

Guatemala experienced a cruel genocide in the early eighties, in the context of a repressive Conflict. Due to the different governments´ repressive policies, this terrible social situation was little known abroad, and even in the own country. Just after the Peace Accords, several organisms worked to uncover the historical truth. In any case, we cannot forget that testimonial literature is a privileged mean to know this dark period of the contemporary history of Guatemala. This genre is particularly relevant, because the main writers are originally Mayans, and have directly suffered both repression and social exclusion due to ethnic reasons. Rigoberta Menchú, Unmberto Ak´abal and Víctor Montejo represent a new and original point of view in the measure in which they describe feelings and situations from the perspective of those who experience them personally. Testimonial literature or the Testimonio becomes an ethnographic document that allows us to know not just a period but a people who have suffered from repression and exclusion for centuries.


2015 ◽  
Vol 95 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 255-275
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Jaran

“Switzerland of the Middle East” and “the oriental Paris” are some of the names that the beautiful city of Beirut had earned before the disasters of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). This historical event is considered the most important one in the contemporary history of Lebanon, not only because it marks the end of a difficult peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic and religious groups during the period between the Independence (1943) and the beginning of the conflict (1975), but also because it made radical geopolitical changes to the entire region. At the end of the “Swiss epoque”, the city of Beirut begins to undergo a series of transformations in terms of urban planning, landscape, etc. This paper aims to study the literary representation of Beirut during the conflict, taking as examples two authors, one Lebanese, Elias Khuri, who shows, in his novel The Journey of Little Gandhi, the irrationality of war and its effects on the city and on the inhabitants; the other one is the Italian writer, Oriana Fallaci, who describes in his novel Inshallah the experience of the Italian contingent in the peacekeeping mission in Beirut. Despite the considerable differences between the two authors, the papers shows the narratives’ affinity which highlight the transformation of Beirut, the image of its citizens and the problematic of the assimilation process between them and their city.


Author(s):  
Marcelo Fronza

This research is linked to the projects “Textbooks and how to learn and teach the history of conflicts in different spaces and times” and “Youth and the ideas of historical truth and intersubjectivity in relation to visual historical narratives”. I investigate the ideas of Brazilian graduate young students about conflicts between Europeans and Indians during the conquest of America, which took place around 1492 and 1550. I produce a research instrument based on methodological criteria of qualitative research (LESSARD-HÉBERT, GOYETTE &amp; BOUTIN, 2005). This research tool contains open questions concerning the confrontation of two fragments in history comic books. The first historical graphic narrative, version A, called “Conquest and the colonization of America” is a chapter of the textbook organized as historical comic book “General History: History for modern school” (CASTRO &amp; ZALLA, 1971). The second historical graphic narrative presented in the research instrument, the version B, called “Colombo” (ALTAN, 1989). In conclusion, it can verify that these young students understand some of the fundamental elements of these artifacts of historical culture greatly facilitate the apprehension of historical knowledge elaborated in an intersubjective and humanistic way.<strong> </strong>


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 165-182
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Pasamar

The present article revolves around the interest in contemporary history from ancient writers to humanist historians. Its objective, which forms part of a broader purpose devoted to elucidating the characteristics of the so-called History of the Present, is to examine the forms this interest has traditionally adopted. In this way, we put for consideration the following hypothesis: from classical historians onwards, concern with contemporary history was always considered a hard and inevitable task to be undertaken, since it affected rulers and living people. Nevertheless, the long-standing doctrine of history as memory of events for centuries prevented historians from facing paradoxes that interest in contemporary past implies, that is: how can historians confront the political uses, memories and demands of public opinion to deal with the recent past without jeopardizing historical truth?


Author(s):  
Volodymyr Hladyshev ◽  
Nataliia Daskal

The creativity of the award winner of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize in the domain of literature Dmytro Kremin (1953-2019) is a vivid phenomenon of modern Ukrainian literature and culture. His poetic heritage has a special meaning after the poet passed away in May of this year. Now it is worth to be considered and conceived as a kind of his testament left to descendants by the outstanding master of the imaginative word. Dmytro Kremin`s legacy has always been in the centre of attention of critical literary practice, his poems evoked a contradictory attitude towards himself, thanks to it the critics` reviewers were so brilliant and emotional. But after the poet`s death, there is a need for a literary study of his heritage and a conclusion to the study of the work of an outstanding poet on a qualitatively new level. Among the poet’s many works, the poem holds a special place. It was created before long after Ukraine gained independence. Appeal to the people and the country`s history, Dmytro Kremin comprehends the origins of their heavy fate. The philosophical approach to understanding concrete historical phenomena allows the poet to look profoundly into the past, to define the influence on the present, and the origins of our young state`s problems. A wide range of historical figures, to which the author refers, characterizes the history of Ukraine in its most noticeable facts. The analysis of the poem is philological. The figurative system of the work is perceived in the unity of form and content. Thus it is possible to identify the aesthetic singularity of the work and its patriotic directivity. The study proves that the appeal of the patriotic poet to history should be received as a kind of poetic admonition, an attempt to draw attention to the tragic mistakes for the people`s fate to avoid them in the contemporary history of Ukraine. The poet’s call to live for the sake of the Motherland, to conscientious service to the country and people reflects his moral and aesthetic position and becomes his contribution to the development of the country. We consider that the article can be useful for researchers, lecturers, school teachers, students, and everyone interested in the creativity of the outstanding Ukrainian poet.


Author(s):  
Olesia Medynska ◽  
Markiian Medynskyy

The article presents a study of the historical foundations of the chronicle novel ”The Vanishing Shadows. A Family Chronicle” by Valeriy Shevchuk. The attention is focused on the writer’s interpretation of historical events in the late 18th century. The social and ideological, discursive processes of the reproduced historical period are analyzed. An integral perception of the history of our country is presented in an inseparable connection between the past and the present. The critical moments in Ukrainian history were outlined as the background against which some urgent, vital problems of either a single individual or the whole ethnic group were shown. Particular characters are correlated with the historical figures, with historical truth being confirmed both indetails and in the general picture of represented reality. Special stress is placed on the artistic depiction of intrinsic motives of the members of the ancient noble family of Temnytskyi. The article discusses the issues of nation-building in the context of social destruction and imperial enslavement. We also propose a new paradigm of human spiritual existence that was inspired by Schevchuk’s work, and explore the ideas of national self-identification as a spiritual rather than caste community, and of the quest for national unity embarked on by intelligentsia as the leader of the nation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Amy F. Fyn

If you’ve ever been curious about the authenticity of references to plague in Romeo and Juliet, or wondered how Elizabethans treated melancholia, considered witchcraft, or treated actors, the resources in Shakespeare’s World will help you think like a Renaissance man or woman. This recent addition to Greenwood’s Historical Exploration of Literature series situates four of Shakespeare’s tragedies within the contemporary history of Renaissance England. In order to contextualize broad social considerations that the Bard’s audience recognized, the volume includes primary sources and additional references that will engage any student of new historicism or reader interested in a broader picture of society and social concerns of the day.


2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Lung

Abstract This article argues that interpreters are crucial figures in the recording of history. Evidence taken from historical texts in ancient China is used to verify the claim that interpreters’ notes might have been used as a reference in composing historical records. By documenting the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) policy to have interpreters interview foreign envoys and submit the relevant accounts to the Bureau of Historiography, this article provides background for the link between interpreters’ interview notes and history compilation in China. Evidence is further drawn from the history of the Sui dynasty (AD 581-618), whereby an interpreter’s mediated account of the emperor’s conversation with a Japanese envoy was directly adapted. Most interestingly, pictorial and written documents of foreign peoples made in the mid-6th century during the Liang dynasty (AD 502-557) were found to be very similar to the written accounts about these foreign peoples in Liangshu, the history of the Liang dynasty, completed in the early 7th century. Apparently, there is a solid link between the interview accounts and historical accounts about foreign peoples in China. Thus, there is a strong possibility that interpreters’ notes, in the form of reports, provide important, if not primary, sources for history compilation in China.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
О.М. Морозова

Цель статьи – выявление обстоятельств сооружения памятника участникам похода Таманской Красной армии в станице Славянской и раскрытие символического значения, придававшегося монументу современниками его создания. Материалами исследования послужили документы личного архива начальника штаба Таманской армии Г. Н. Батурина, сохранившегося в Центре документации новейшей истории Ростовской области. Проведена работа по атрибуции фотоматериалов. Установлены обстоятельства проведения конкурса проектов памятника, проанализированы события, связанные с его возведением, выявлены подробности торжественных мероприятий, сопровождавших его открытие, определены персоналии, внесшие значительный личный вклад в сооружение монумента. Уделено внимание характеристике личности архитектора и художника А. А. Юнгера – создателя проекта памятника. Сделан вывод, что присущий памятнику милитарный дух отражает самоощущение таманцев, утвердившихся по результатам Гражданской войны в роли профессиональных военных. The article aims to identify the circumstances of the construction of a monument to the participants of the Taman Red Army campaign in the village Slavyanskaya and to reveal the symbolic value that the then contemporaries attributed to the monument at the time of its creation. The materials of the study were the documents of the personal archive of G.N. Baturin, the Chief of the Staff of the Taman Army, preserved in the Center for Documentation of Contemporary History of Rostov Oblast. The documents were fragmentary, so the author reconstructed information about the related events and the historical figures involved in them; she also attributed photographic materials. The research methodology involved the use of systematic historical and historical genetic methods, as well as the principles of diachronic analysis. The author prefaces the study with a fact-based excursion into the history of the Taman Red Army and a brief account of the postwar fate of its men. She establishes the circumstances of the emergence of the idea to construct the monument and to hold a competition of projects before its construction, describes the winning project and its creator, the architect and artist Alexander Junger. She notes the distinctive nature of the monument: the Soviet standard of revolutionary memorials were not formed at that time. The author thoroughly analyzes the events related to the laying and construction of the monument, the contradictions and problems (both financial economic and personal) that accompanied the construction, shows how they were solved. She reveals the details of the ceremonial events accompanying the unveiling of the monument, identifies persons who made a significant personal contribution to the construction of the monument, and characterizes the monument’s symbolism, which is dominated by ancient oriental signs. The monument does not contain traditional Soviet symbols except for the coat of arms on the top of the stele. The massiveness of the monument can be interpreted as a reminder of the difficulties of the campaign of the Taman Army. The author concludes that the military spirit inherent in the monument reflects the self-consciousness of the Taman men, who established themselves as professional soldiers as a result of the Civil War. The erected obelisk was not only a monument to the fallen comrades, but also a claim of the living Taman people for a special place in the pantheon of heroes of the revolution. The snake crushed by the weight of the obelisk means not only the “hydra of the counterrevolution”, but also the outdated social class organization of Russian society.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-447
Author(s):  
Tatiana I. Afanasyeva

AbstractThis study examines the history of an ancient Russian service book (sluzhebnik) dating from the first half of the fourteenth century, which was divided into two parts in the early nineteenth century. One of the two parts was purchased by the well-known Russian collector Alexander Sulakadzev and is currently held by the Manuscript Library of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). The other part was acquired by the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg (currently, the National Library of Russia) no later than the 1830s. Judging by the surviving inventories, Sulakadzev acquired the service book for his collection in 1816 at the earliest. While in his possession, Sulakadzev added several false notes to the sluzhebnik attempting to pass it off as a manuscript known to have been in Tmutarakan in 1079; other false handwritten notes in the service book were intended to imply that it had belonged to several famous Russian historical figures. This article corrects some errors made in earlier publications about the manuscript and establishes that Sulakadzev pasted into the service book a miniature of much later origin (which, however, has not survived). The article presents a reconstruction of the contents of the original sluzhebnik, including descriptions of both its parts.


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