Lithuanian Literature in Search of Historical Truth: Three Decades of Independence

The article focuses on the beginning of the Singing Revolution in Lithuanian culture and tries to identify the most significant dominant features in order to understand the entirety of the new changes in literature. In the face of political upheaval, such a dominant feature was the question of truth; however, the well-established poetry tradition – romantic, neo-romantic, modern neo-romantic, which coexisted with social realism in Soviet times, and experimental – did not raise such questions of truth but only reflected the nation’s collective expectations. The evolution of Lithuanian literature, which was highly fragmented during all the decades of the Soviet occupation, united the country through the expatriate poet Bernardas Brazdžionis while he was visiting Lithuania in the summer of 1989. Poetic texts predominated during the first demonstrations of Sąjūdis (the Reform Movement), but while trying to understand their position in the general Lithuanian culture and literature discourse, one needs to acknowledge the leading nature of poetry throughout the Soviet times: having its niche in the cultural system, poetry posed a large number of vexed questions, sought philosophical profundity, and was able to constantly address the deepest metaphysical questions even in strict censorship conditions. Lithuanian prose, which evaded the requirement by the doctrine of social realism to portray the world and characters engaged in class struggles, also found support in the poetry system and created a non-linear but coherent narrative where metaphors prevail. Lithuanian prose poetry became a sign of esthetic quality in independent Lithuania too, where the question of truth, which was important for achieving independence, found a way similar to that of poetry – through memoirs and essays to esthetics and little prose. At the beginning of independence, poetry, which had fed Lithuanian prose with its ideas, themes, conception of the world and esthetic solutions, also merged with memoirs and essays, thus being part of the discourse of telling the truth.

Tagore's Gora: A Reformist's Protest Against Religious And Social Fundamentalism

In the 19th century, Bengal Hindu orthodoxy and fundamentalism were at their height as seen in the strict observances of the caste distinctions. Women were subjected to inhuman practices like Sati, Purdah, Child marriage, etc. A reform movement was initiated by Raja Ram Mohan Roy through his institution of BrahmoSamaj. Rabindranath Tagore along with his father and grandfather was also an adherent of BrahmoSamaj. His keen desire for an end to bigotry and awakening of reason finds expression in his novel Gora. In fact, Tagore seems to be using the novel to make a fervent appeal against discrimination, orthodoxy and intolerance. He wishes for a country which would be free from injustice and cruelty towards the poor and weak.

The General Buddhist Association of Vietnam 1951–1964 (Tổng Hội Phật Giáo Việt Nam): A Forgotten Step Towards the 1964 Buddhist Church

This paper provides an overview of the Buddhist community in the 50s and 60s, addressing the creation of the first national Buddhist association: the General Buddhist Association of Vietnam (Tổng Hội Phật Gio Việt Nam, GBA). Most academic works sum up the GBA to the date of its foundation by three regional delegations of Buddhists believers in May 1951, and its participation in the political crisis of 1963, the so-called Buddhist Crisis. Its genesis, the internal structures of this first national association, the philosophy and new national narrative of its leaders, their conflictual and distant relationship with secular power and other Buddhists group, remains largely unknown. Providing a new set of contextual elements, this analysis of the GBAs history will contribute to our understanding of Vietnamese Buddhism history in the 20th century, in its continuities and inconsistencies. Essentially a failed first attempt to build a Buddhist church the history of the GBA is highly revealing of the long-standing aspirations of its creators and should be understood as a transitional step between early reform movement and the 1964 UBC. Emphasizing on cultural, social, and political matters, this paper is mainly based on barely used primary sources available in Vietnam.

A Reflection on The Inter-Semiotic Transformation of Select Vacanas of Akka Mahadevi into a Music-Dance Production

This project was set out to curate dance videos of select vacanas, meaning, religious free verses in Kannada, of Akka Mahadevi, a twelfth century poet from Karnataka, India. Vacanas are religious lyrics in free verse which mean ‘a saying’ or ‘a thing said’. By translating Akka’s vacanas to music and dance the project aimed to transport the essence of her poetry to the viewer. The symbols, images and metaphors used by the poet from discursive fields such as Bhakthi movement (a spiritual reform movement in India), Vedas, Upanishads, Yoga and feminism were re-interpreted through traditional music and dance styles recognized as classical arts by the national government, by a process of, what I theorize, as inter-semiotic transformation. Inter-semiotic transformation is the reinterpretation of symbols from one semiotic system, say, literature into others like music, dance, film or theatre. This paper analyses strategies of bringing poetry into the realm of aesthetic experience of viewers through the performing arts.

Islamic Book and Islam in Indonesia: a Historical Perspective

Alongside the advance of Islamic reformism in the early twentieth century, one central element to pay attention is the rise of printed media, Islamic book, which enhanced the shaping of the reformist Muslims. Written in Malay with Rumi script, the books with Islamic substance first appeared as part of Islamic reform movement. Nearly all the authors were the leading activists of reformist organizations. This trend continued to develop, leading the books to emerge as an important pillar in the formation of Islamic intellectual discourses. This study focuses on the historical study of the Islamic books development and progression, with strong emphasis given to the ideas behind their rising in the courses of Indonesian history. Based on the classical theory of discourse of Michel Foucault, as well as the one of post-linguistic turn historiography, this article demonstrates, in reference to the three time periods which each presented a specific mode of intellectual thinking, the growing importance of Islamic books in the making of print-based religious life, which paved the way for the strengthening of socio-religious plurality in modern Indonesia. Firstly, Islamic Book as the voice of Islamic reform, secondly, Islamic Books in 1950s-1960s, and lastly, Islamic Books in contemporary Indonesia.

Is Open Science Neoliberal?

The scientific reform movement, which is frequently referred to as open science, has the potential to substantially reshape how science is done, and for this reason, its socio-political antecedents and consequences deserve serious scholarly attention. In a recently formed literature that professes to meet this need, it has been widely argued that the movement is neoliberal. However, for two reasons it is hard to justify this wide-scale attribution: 1) the critics mistakenly attribute the movement a monolithic structure, and 2) the critics' arguments associating the movement with neoliberalism are highly questionable. In particular, critics too hastily associate the movement’s preferential focus on methodological issues and its underlying philosophy of science with neoliberalism, and their allegations regarding the pro-market proclivities of the reform movement do not hold under closer scrutiny. What is needed are more nuanced accounts of the socio-political underpinnings of scientific reform that show more respect to the complexity of the subject matter. To address this need, we propose a meta-model for the analysis of reform proposals, which represents methodology, axiology, science policy, and ideology as interconnected but relatively distinct domains, and allows for recognizing the divergent tendencies in the movement.

„Atgimimo banga“ Challenge to Soviet Mass media: Reform Movement of Lithuania (Sąjūdis) Telecast as „Open Protest Field“ in Time of Political Changes (1988 June– 1990 March)

During the Soviet occupation, the whole Lithuanian SSR media was regarded as one of the key propaganda tools based on pure ideological content and socialist-communist messages. In such a media setting television played an essential role; together with radio (as in Moscow’s example) the latter felt under control of a committee ruled by the Council of Ministers (CM), Central Committee (CC) and Moscow patrons itself. But this situation was about to change when Sąjūdis (Reform Movement of Lithuania) came to public and tried to established its right to uncensored broadcast time via television for its own dissemination of information, which sometimes had a strong political message and was not in favour of ruling regime and party. Sąjūdis had a purpose which was totally new during Lithuanian SSR times since the start of television broadcasts in 1957 – it was uncensored broadcasting time. Based on archive sources, memoirs and press articles, this research focuses on the telecast “Atgimimo banga“ as one of the essential informational channels for Sąjūdis. This article tries to disclose its history, influence and conflicts between Sąjūdis and ruling regime, which tried to control and censor telecast’s content. Eventually, the sporadic telecast’s format had another effect: when in 1989 Sąjūdis became important part of the Lithuanian SSR political system, telecast’s popularity came to decline. One of the most popular perestroika time TV programs had some unfulfilled expectations, and, during the time, it made it as one of the most unpopular. The chronological boundaries of this research start at June of 1988, when Sąjūdis was created, and ends in March of 1990, when Lithuania declared its independence from Soviet Union.