Mirandese studies: Language, literature, landscape and pedagogy

Thinking with the Nation"National" Literatures at the Cusp Sukanya Banerjee (bio) Critical discussions of the nineteenth-century nation tend to be anachronistic inasmuch as we retrofit contemporary notions of the nation into nineteenth-century politico-cultural formations. One can be forgiven for this anachronistic move because nineteenth-century literary and cultural history bears ample evidence of the singularity with which the spirit of nationalism imbued itself in and through aesthetic and cultural practices, be it in Romantic imaginings or the literary artifact of the Victorian novel. However, it is worth noting that the object of nationalism—the nation—remained considerably opaque throughout the century. Incidentally, while the French Revolution is widely understood to mark the point at which state power begins to affix itself to national sentiment, the sovereign nation-state was hardly a ubiquitous phenomenon until about the mid-twentieth century.1 But it is also the case that the nation itself was quite amorphous over the course of the nineteenth century. Even as Walter Bagehot authored a definitive treatise on what is a key instrument of nationhood, the constitution (in this case, the English constitution), he also mused: "But what are nations?"2 The opacity of the nation arose not so much from its mutability (changing borders) but from the uncertainty regarding its organizing logic. What was the coherent element around which a community imagined itself? Was it language? Was it race? How much could one put store in territoriality, which, after all, could shift? As twenty-first century readers and scholars, we are all too familiar with the artifice of the nation, the fact of its constructedness. But so were thinkers in the nineteenth [End Page 84] century. What does it mean, then, to read this contingency back into the nineteenth century, when nations were are at various stages of making, nonmaking, and unmaking? How does such a chronologically apposite view impinge upon our otherwise unitary understanding of "national literature" or "national tradition" that a post–Second World War critical and political legacy has bequeathed us? How might revisiting the nation in the late nineteenth century, at the cusp, in fact, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, reorient our thinking about the nation and the critical frameworks that it might generate? In addressing these questions, I want to consider analytical frameworks that might be apropos to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries given that this was a period that came in the wake of the Italian Risorgimento and German unification but also witnessed an upsurge in anticolonial agitation as well as colonial nationalisms that understood sovereignty and affiliation as nested, layered, and dispersed.3 The idea of the nation was very much in the air in Britain, too, where national sovereignty had been continually negotiated through franchise reform (the latest installment in 1882) and national identity found expression in patriotic jingoism attending the Boer wars. But the British nation was also inextricable from its empire, and if, as Hedinger and Hee point out, the tendency of "transnational history" is to "nationalize empires," such that "imperial history is read as the history of a nation-state beyond its borders,"4 then it is worth noting the inadequacy of the transnational as an analytical template in this context, not least because of the impossibility of reading the British nation as a discrete formation. In trying to read the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century nation and the literatures and traditions that gathered under its rubric, it might be productive, instead, to consider theories of nation extant in the nineteenth century, which is to say, to read through the nineteenth century and with the Victorians—widely understood—rather than retrospectively superimpose our late twentieth- and twenty-first-century critical frameworks upon them. At one level, then, I am making a temporal argument about our reading of the nation, suggesting that while we tend to read back into the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century nation and its literatures and cultures, we should focus instead on the nineteenth century and use that as a basis for reading [End Page 85] forward. Evidently, the famed temporal paradoxes of the nation inflect our reading habits, as well. But why focus on the...

Securing the boundaries of wilderness in northern Alaska, 1892–1950

Since the late nineteenth century, many Bengali women from educated upper- and middle-class families have traveled abroad. Many have written about their journeys, revealing a sense of adventure and excitement. In the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, two Bengali women traveling in London and Bristol employed a reciprocal gaze in order to represent the Europeans—and specifically the British—for readers back home.KeywordsOrange JuiceIndian WomanEnglish WomanVivid PictureFeminist VisionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

The basic purpose of this article is to survey the visions of America embodied in a number of American long poems from different literary periods. Since there have been a considerable number of long poems written in America during its almost 350-year history, it has been necessary to make some stringent selections. The texts used here have been chosen for their literary-historical importance. Starting with Michael Wigglesworth's 1662 poem, The Day of Doom, the article proceeds to the work of Joel Barlow and, to a lesser extent, Philip Freneau from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries before approaching Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass from the late nineteenth century, and Alien Ginsberg's poem. Howl, from the mid-twentieth century.

Since the film camera was invented in the late nineteenth century, psychiatrists and their associates in allied disciplines have attempted to capture the symptomatology and treatment of mental illness in moving images. Film was used by 'psy' scientists for different ends over the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth century: as a diagnostic tool, as the means to create a visual archive of pathological gesture and expression, and as documentary and exposé. This chapter explores the opportunities and difficulties that face the historian of psychiatry when using film sources. It begins with a discussion of the parameters of psychiatric film and the expansion of its use in the mid-twentieth century. The following section explores the epistemological value of film within psychiatry and relevant implications for historical analysis. This extends into an examination of three salient issues facing the researcher: the fragmentary nature of film evidence, the ethical uncertainties surrounding the filming of patients, and the uses of empathy. The chapter ends with a list of major film archives and their holdings.

Between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, technology transformed the industry as much as it did such heavy industries as coal and steel. Among those most directly affected were musicians, who had to adapt to successive inventions and refinements in audio technology-from wax cylinders and gramophones to radio and sound films. In this groundbreaking study, James P. Kraft explores the intersection of sound technology, corporate power, and artistic labor during this disruptive period. Kraft begins in the late nineteenth century's golden age of musicians, when demand for skilled instrumentalists often exceeded supply, analyzing the conflicts in concert halls, nightclubs, recording studios, radio stations, and Hollywood studios as musicians began to compete not only against their local counterparts but also against highly skilled workers in national entertainment factories. Kraft offers an illuminating case study in the impact of technology on industry and society-and a provocative chapter in the cultural history of America.

The Last Ottoman Generation and the Making of the Modern Middle East

This article examines the influence of dominant thinkers, social welfare leaders, and popular authors who asserted that public aid stimulates recipients’ biological reproduction. This idea was first systematized by political economist Thomas Robert Malthus during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, most notably in his famous Essay on the Principle of Population. Malthusian ideas on public aid and reproduction then influenced policy in the United States in the late nineteenth century. The ideas also provided a rationale for attacks on public aid programs in the mid-twentieth century and throughout the era of so-called welfare reform, typified by policies such as the family cap and other provisions initiated to regulate welfare recipients’ reproduction. These measures were influenced substantially by the work of political scientist Charles Murray. After presenting this history, the article explores implications of these ideas for current and future policy.

The article is devoted to the investigation of traditional folk clothing of the inhabitants of the Bohuslav district of the late 19th – mid-20th centuries. The peculiarities of the folk costume of this district of Kyiv region are explored on the base of the materials collected and recorded during a folklore and ethnographic expedition to the Bohuslav district in May–June, 2024 as a part of the “Clothing and Tradition. Bohuslavshchyna” project, initiated by the members of the community organization “Around us. UA”. In total, 35 settlements have been studied during the expedition, and more than 100 respondents are interviewed. Thus, the article is aimed at the characterizing the peculiarities of folk costumes of the Bohuslav district in the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The object of the study is traditional Ukrainian clothing worn in the Bohuslav district of the Kyiv region in the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The subject of the submitted work includes the local peculiarities of the folk costume of the Bohuslav region of this period, the state of preservation of traditional clothing in the region in the twenty-first century. The clothes complexes (underwear, belt, chest, outerwear, belts, headdresses, jewelry and footwear) are analyzed in the terms of their aesthetic sophistication and pragmatism. The methods of making Bohuslav clothing and the materials used for this purpose are studied. The features common to the costumes of various regions of Ukraine, as well as distinctive features typical for the Middle Over Dnipro Lands are described. It is mentioned about the use of clothing elements in the ritual culture and beliefs related to attire. The influence of socio-economic factors on the formation of the features of folk clothes of Bohuslav region is emphasized. Attention is paid to the fact that, despite the gradual extinction of traditional culture, the scientists are able to record field data from authentic carriers even in 2024. It is shown that folk costumes are one of the important determinants of the identification discourse of Ukrainians, as well as an original ethno-cultural marker of a particular region.

Cathaya argyrophylla is an ancient and threatened Pinaceae species endemic to China, but its eco-physiological traits are rarely reported. We hypothesized that Cathaya showed eco-physiological outliers to its Pinaceae relatives, which lead to its current endangered status. Here we collected the photosynthetic capacity (Pn, maximum photosynthesis rate) and branchlet hydraulic safety (P50, the water potential at which a 50% loss in conductivity occurs) of Pinaceae species globally, including our measurements on Cathaya. We applied the phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate: (i) the phylogenetic signal of the two key traits across Pinaceae species, and (ii) the trait–climate relationships and the photosynthesis–cavitation resistance relationship across Pinaceae species. We applied the polygenetic quantile regression (PQR) method to assess whether Cathaya showed eco-physiological outliers to its Pinaceae relatives in terms of cavitation resistance and photosynthetic capacity. It was found that P50, and to a less extent, Pn, had a strong phylogenetic signal consistent with niche conservation among Pinaceae species. Hydraulic safety largely determined non-threatened Pinaceae species’ distribution across moisture gradients at the global scale. There was also an adaptive trade-off relationship between Pn and P50. Cathaya is a high cavitation resistant, low photosynthetic capacity species. It showed eco-physiological outliers to its Pinaceae relatives because it had lower P50 and Pn below the 10% quantile boundaries along moisture and/or temperature gradients; also, it was above the 90% quantile boundary of the Pn and P50 relationship across non-endangered Pinaceae species. The PQR output demonstrated that in the subtropical area of China characterized by abundant rainfall, Cathaya has extra high hydraulic safety, suggesting inefficiency of carbon economy associated with either competition or other life history strategies, which lead to its current endangered status.

This article will follow the evolution of dowry boxes on the territory of the Republic of Moldova (late nineteenth century – mid-twentieth century), the role of external influence, the Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian, which left its mark on the type of decoration to these boxes. It will also be followed, the place and the way of their execution. The peasant’s economic factor and the social condition led to a different number and different quality of the dowry boxes, made by local craftsmen or purchased in fairs and cities. Models of dowry boxes made of joiners or carpentries, differed according to the way of joining and decoration techniques (notching, painting, carving, etc.), each in its own way presenting special artistry. The field research on the Republic of Moldova’s entire territory (2.3 localities from each district of the Republic), related to historical data and literature, has allowed classification of crates and their dating in its historical evolution. This classification allows us to capitalize on and promote our cultural heritage.

ABSTRACTThis article offers insights into how to use what are now readily-available digital versions of ‘urban art’ to explore different facets of city life. It uses paintings as a more nuanced alternative to contemporary film, which tends to offer a simplistic dystopian vision of the urban experience. The article explores the city as portrayed by influential artists working in different countries from the midnineteenth century onwards, including France in the late nineteenth century – Gustave Caillebotte (focusing on Paris); America in the early twentieth century – George Bellows (on New York); Britain in the mid-twentieth century – L.S. Lowry (on Salford); and a contemporary Chinese artist – Cao Fei (on Guangzhou). Each allows us to see the city through specific narrative choices, and each example suggests how this approach might be used in any examination of urban life.

In this article, our attention is focused on the BED as an element of peasant furniture, on the territory of the Republic of Moldova (late nineteenth century - mid-twentieth century). The bed derives in most cases from the bench. As furniture with a special shape, the bed appears in the rural house in the 19th century, first in wealthy families. It is more widespread in the interwar period and after the Second World War. According to the system of joining the parts, the classification of beds can be divided into two categories: beds joined in «feather and gutter»; beds joined with «plug and hollow». The tables present the largest decoration of the bed through various wavy profiles, through variations of planes, turned parts, in rare cases decorated with simple paintings or by imitation veneer. The detailed analysis of the peasant furniture, and of the beds, in particular, starting from the craftsman, who made this furniture, the execution and decoration technique used, tell us about the tendencies of a period, which is worth following closely to better understand the artistic peculiarities of the furniture and traditional art.

vol. 6, 2014 Copyright © 2014 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA The year 2013 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Lawrence Levine’s Highbrow/ Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America. The book was immediately, and wildly, influential among American cultural historians and students of American literature. I remember attending a national meeting shortly after it came out where participants reverentially invoked Levine’s key terms and assumptions, as if they had discovered in the book’s pages an explanation, deeply satisfying both ideologically and emotionally, for a phenomenon that had long been troubling them. In the years since 1988, Highbrow/Lowbrow has exhibited the staying power of a classic, a status certified by the book’s appearance on countless syllabi and oral exam lists. Today it remains available in paperback and in a Kindle version, and I am told that a French edition was just recently published. Many of us have profited a great deal from Levine’s study, and we lament his untimely death in 2006. Yet those of us who have been working in the history of the book and related areas have arrived at a point where we might profitably reassess the arguments of Highbrow/Lowbrow, instead of merely appropriating its framework. What have we learned over the last twentyfive years about cultural hierarchy in America? What Rethinking the Creation of Cultural Hierarchy in America

What's love got to do with it? Love-life gossip and migration intentions in rural Iceland