Sustaining Dominant Narratives

Andean Truths ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 30-59
Author(s):  
Anne Lambright

Chapter One examines post-2003 novels by celebrated authors Alonso Cueto, Santiago Roncagliolo, and Ivan Thays. These texts present a lens through which to read the CVR’s Final Report, by teasing out and focusing on its central themes and revealing how a certain sector, namely upper-middle-class, limeño, male intellectuals, process the civil war and its consequences. The novels elucidate postconflict efforts to redefine concepts of sovereignty and citizenship, while reifying dominant understandings of class, race, and ethnicity within national discourse. Even as they construct stories set in the post-war period, with protagonists who must intimately struggle with the vestiges of violence, these novels further a sustained project of symbolic violence that began with the Conquest and that engendered and sustained the war itself.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-156
Author(s):  
A. Yu. Timofeev

The article considers the perception of World War II in modern Serbian society. Despite the stability of Serbian-Russian shared historical memory, the attitudes of both countries towards World wars differ. There is a huge contrast in the perception of the First and Second World War in Russian and Serbian societies. For the Serbs the events of World War II are obscured by the memories of the Civil War, which broke out in the country immediately after the occupation in 1941 and continued several years after 1945. Over 70% of Yugoslavs killed during the Second World War were slaughtered by the citizens of former Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The terror unleashed by Tito in the first postwar decade in 1944-1954 was proportionally bloodier than Stalin repressions in the postwar USSR. The number of emigrants from Yugoslavia after the establishment of the Tito's dictatorship was proportionally equal to the number of refugees from Russia after the Civil War (1,5-2% of prewar population). In the post-war years, open manipulations with the obvious facts of World War II took place in Tito's Yugoslavia. In the 1990s the memories repressed during the communist years were set free and publicly debated. After the fall of the one-party system the memory of World War II was devalued. The memory of the Russian-Serbian military fraternity forged during the World War II began to revive in Serbia due to the foreign policy changes in 2008. In October 2008 the President of Russia paid a visit to Serbia which began the process of (re) construction of World War II in Serbian historical memory. According to the public opinion surveys, a positive attitude towards Russia and Russians in Serbia strengthens the memories on general resistance to Nazism with memories of fratricide during the civil conflict events of 1941-1945 still dominating in Serbian society.


Author(s):  
Jim Sykes

In the conclusion to The Musical Gift, Jim Sykes discusses Sri Lankan versions of viral music videos over the past decade, particularly Pharrell Williams’ video “Happy.” Sykes notes that several people filming themselves dancing to Williams’ song were stopped by the police, who could not comprehend why people were singing and dancing in public outside of the bounds of an official concert. The Sri Lankan “Happy” videos have also been criticized as depicting upper- and middle-class Sri Lankans and thus obscuring the fact that happiness has not been achieved for many Sri Lankans, including those who suffered greatly from the war. Returning to the concept of “the musical gift,” Sykes argues the promotion of public song and dance from and between various communities has a role to play in forging post-war reconciliation and building a “happiness” that emerges from Sri Lankan aesthetics.


Author(s):  
Minor Mora-Salas ◽  
Orlandina de Oliveira

This chapter demonstrates how upper middle-class Mexican families mobilize a vast array of social, cultural, and economic resources to expand their children’s opportunities in life and ensure the intergenerational transmission of their social position. The authors analyze salient characteristics of families’ socioeconomic and demographics in the life histories of a group of young Mexicans from an upper middle-class background. Many believe that micro-social processes, especially surrounding education, are key to understanding how upper-class families mobilize their various resources to shape their children’s life trajectories. These families accumulate social advantages over time that accrue to their progeny and benefit them upon their entrance to the labor market.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Martin

This article surveys the Catholic Church's exploitation of sport in Liberal (1861–1922), Fascist (1922–1943), and post-war Italy. It examines how and why the Church overcame its initial reticence to embrace sport and turn it into a fundamental pillar of an alternative culture that challenged the monopoly of national sporting federations. Following the rise of Fascism, sport became one of the principal means by which the Church resisted a complete takeover by the regime. Analysis of the devout Catholic cyclist Gino Bartali reveals how the Church maintained its identity and tradition of sporting independence despite the inevitable suppression of Catholic sporting organisations. Culminating in an examination of the ‘immortalisation’ of Bartali after his win in the 1948 Tour De France – a victory popularly credited with saving Italy from civil war – the article illuminates the processes by which sport became a central feature of Catholicism in national life. It highlights the Church's contribution to the development of Italian sport, assesses the wider impact of sport's role in forming alternative cultures, and argues that sport perfectly positioned the Church to respond to the demands of Reconstruction Italy and provided opportunities to secure a post-war Christian Democratic society.


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