Kemal Yalçin: Opening Silenced Memories, Seeing the Invisible

Voyaging throughout the villages and towns of historic Armenia, dissident Turkish writer Kemal Yalçin discovers hidden, secret or crypto-Armenian families whose disguise of national identity, suppression of memories of historic catastrophes and fear of discrimination are experienced as personal tragedies. Yalçin describes his journey of discovery of silenced memories and invisible identities in his book You Rejoice My Heart (2007) – a documentary, fact-based collection combining features of a novel and political history blended together. The significant point that the present paper emphasises is the fact that the recording of the pain and the hopes of hidden Armenians is Kemal Yalçin’s autobiographical confession and his protest against Turkish nationalist and chauvinist policy, against the intolerance and aggression of Turkish authorities and his recognition of the Genocide of Armenians in 1915.

Resistance and Identity in The God of Small Things Written by Arundhati Roy

This paper presents an analysis of the novel "The God of the Small Things" written by Arundhati Roy. The primary purpose of this paper is to evaluate the idea of resistance and identity that have been described in the novel by the novelist. It will be demonstrated in this novel that how the resistance against the traditions and norms of post-colonial era is related to the self-realisation. There are different kinds of resistance that have been depicted in the novel at various circumstances. In Postcolonial context identity is a complex concept to be located in just a simple definition or to be investigated throughout a single theoretical approach. Resistance as a concept linked to the identity question. The Novel handles this notion and throughout its plot, besides the burden that is left from the colonial legacy, gender identity comes to the surface. Though women resistance appears as a reaction with identity suppression; yet it is a reflection of self-identification of gender inequality under patriarchal traditions inherited from long dominant masculine power. This paper elaborates on each type of resistance and activism that arises against the feudal and patriarchal forces structured by the economic and politically influential people in the new community as a sample in India after postcolonialism. Consequently, one of the points that the research ends with is that the act of resistance validates the pursuit for self-identity, which is an attempt to renown, reclaim and rename the world.

National Policy in a Multinational state: Balance of Interests or Hegemony of Powers that Be?

The article is devoted to the basic principles and types of implementation of national policies in multinational states . We give examples from world practice that reveal the problems of the coexistence of various nations in a single political space . In the article, the authors analyse in detail the well-known causes and models of the formation of large multi-ethnic states, in which there is an urgent need for a national policy based on certain principles that directly depend on the strategy of building the leading political institution . The author draws attention to the evolutionary variability of approaches to state-building while maintaining significant features, but adapted to modern realities . The Russian experience of interethnic interaction, national self-determination and attempts to unify cultural, confessional, linguistic identity, suppression of separatist sentiments, the reasons for the appearance of which are particularly highlighted as one of the main categories characterizing the feasibility, relevance, and foresight of the development strategy of national relations, are examined in detail . Legal consolidation of the Concept of state national policy of the Russian Federation stands out as the most democratic event in Modern Russia, aimed at maintaining state integrity, preventing separatist sentiments . We also give the classification of interethnic conflicts on various grounds known in world practice . Finally, we propose a set of measures for the long-term harmonisation of interethnic interaction in the Russian Federation .

White out of mind: Identity suppression as a coping strategy among Whites anticipating racially charged interactions

Discussing racial issues often makes Whites anxious, particularly when their conversation partners are Black. We theorized that Whites seek to avoid anxiety by suppressing thoughts of White identity prior to such interactions. In Study 1, White participants expected to discuss a race-related or nonracial topic with a Black or White partner. An Implicit Association Test (IAT) measured subsequent changes in the activation of participants’ White identities (i.e., self–White associations). The prospect of discussing race-related (vs. nonracial) topics with a Black partner reduced participants’ self–White associations, implying identity suppression. Moreover, participants’ nonverbal responses suggest that identity suppression functioned to mute participants’ anxiety. In Study 2, participants completed the identity activation measure only after learning that they would not interact with a partner. Consistent with “rebound” effects known to follow suppression, participants who previously expected to discuss a race-related topic with a Black partner showed heightened self–White associations.