Editorial

Editorial introduction for the Summer 2021 issue of Slovo journal, written by Editor-in-Chief Serian Carlyle.

Editorial

Editorial for the Autumn 2021 issue of Slovo, written by Editor-in-Chief Serian Carlyle.

Film Review - How Viktor "The Garlic" Took Aleksei "The Stud" to the Nursing Home (2017)

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Film review - State Funeral (2019)

Review of Sergei Loznitsa's film State Funeral (2019)

Film Review - Back to the Bare Bone of Suffering

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Olivette Otele's African Europeans

Book Review of Olivette Otele's African Europeans: An Untold History.

Constellations of Memory: The Historicity of Hungarian Yizker-Bikher

The following paper reviews Central European memorial volumes created within the borders of modern day Hungary from the 1960s onwards. Using six sporadically chosen primary sources as the subjects of analysis, the argument of this piece will centre around finding out whether memorial volumes or in Yiddish yizker-bikher are reliable testimonial documents based on their historical veracity. The paper argues that the historicity of Eastern European memorial books can range from personal tales of community living, to more accurate historical monographs, aiming to fill out gaps in trans-generational remembrance. The analysis is then divided into four chapters each introducing a relevant perspective when evaluating yizker-bikher: Firstly, it will examine the six memorial books as linguistic sources by showcasing their characteristic narrative techniques. Secondly, the paper will contrast the historical contents covered in the texts with the findings of modern Hungarian Holocaust research. Thirdly, previous academic perspectives categorising yizker-volumes are introduced, leading the paper to a brief conclusion. A final evaluation is conducted to highlight the examined volumes as the sources of microhistory that carry anthropological research potential rather than the ability to provide overarching solutions to the gaps in archival Holocaust history.

Visions of Europe in Crisis: Strategic narratives and their alternatives in Russian state and independent media coverage of the 2015-16 ‘Refugee Crisis’

What stories do states tell about themselves and their neighbours, and how are these narratives challenged? This study takes the case of the European ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015-2016, a period of hostile relations between Russia and the European Union, to examine the vision of Europe disseminated by Russian state-controlled media, and the alternative offered by independent media. It analyses 609 news reports on the ‘refugee crisis’ from state-controlled broadcaster Channel One and 181 news pieces from the independent web-based outlet TV Rain. Adopting the strategic narrative framework proposed by Miskimmon, O’Loughlin and Roselle (2013), this study both provides new detail on the narratives found on Russian state-controlled media, and asks the previously unresearched question: how do independent media outlets react to the dominant narratives seen on state broadcasters? It uses a grounded theory approach to elaborate new findings on the behaviour of independent media. The importance of independent media has traditionally been understood in terms of its ability to hold government to account, but the findings of this study suggest independent media can also act as a watchdog and corrective to state-controlled media. This study thus contributes to the literature on both strategic narratives, and media theory.

Review of The Bukharan Crisis: A Connected History of 18th-Century Central Asia

The Bukharan Crisis: AConnected History of 18th-Century Central Asia deconstructsthe context of Bukharan crisis in the eighteenth century referring to theorieson the global history and the connected history other than a myriad of previousassumptions which attribute the fall of the Bukhara Khanate to the isolationand decline of the early modern Central Asia. But through the lens of Scott C. Levi,Central Asia was neither isolated nor in decline, so he further addresses theBukharan crisis from several different perspectives. On the whole, this book comprisesfour chapters and it elaborates the real historical situation and the challengeBukhara faced in Central Asia’s early modern history around some thematicdiscussions on the image of Silk Road and the history of the Bukhara Khanate.Levi argues that Central Asia actually became more deeply integrated into theoutside world in multiple ways, and it’s far from isolated from the world history.

Editorial

Editorial for the Summer 2021 edition of Slovo, written by Serian Carlyle (Editor-in-Chief)