Feelings Of Identity Research Articles

Modernidad, temporalidad histórica y nacionalismo en los estudios postcoloniales

Postcolonial studies have helped, in the field of historiography, to conceptually define modernity in a global sense, critically synthesizing the foregoing considerations concerning the historical narrative and the concept of subordination. In this sense, the postcolonial perspective attempted to recover the narrative of progress by changing its spatial and temporal structure, researching the history as a segmented reality alien to a linear and progressive conception of time (the impossibility and irrationality of the historical progress). Above all, it is mainly an observation of the possibilities and modalities of subaltern speech, its representation in a «hybrid» language (external to that of the western academic world) and its definition as an example of an alternative modernity. This essay considers not only the «national paradigm» as a verification of the postcolonial approach, for its central role in «Western» history (the European Weltgeschichte ), but it also shows its plural and flexible nature, able to integrate oral and written narratives and the different symbolical representations of the concept of identity. Postcolonialism will be evaluated as an innovative possibility, both in terms of the traditional debate associated to nationalism, between «modernist» and «primordialist», as in the cognitive sense concerning the identity feeling as a timeless and cyclical phenomenon of human relationships.

Czy w najbliższym czasie powstanie język śląski?

The article embarks on a critical analysis of the issue, recently reverberating across the country, of granting a status of a regional language to the Silesian ethnolect. Within the relevant public space, the problem interlocks the three following types of discourse: legal, political and scientific. Onto thus formulated discourse superimposesthe common perception of the unresolved tension of the augmented efforts for revival of the self-identity and political positioning in the Silesian society. These efforts are, in turn, related to a very strong feeling of ethnic identity of the Silesians, who like to emphasize their cultural distinctiveness in everyday communicative situations. The notion of the regional language is a special legal category in EU legislation and has been introduced to Polish legislative discourse after this particular language status has been granted to Kashubian. Currently, a number of political and social initiatives are being undertaken in Upper Silesia that are aimed at the administrative recognition and the application of the same legal category to the Silesian ethnolect. As these actions are mainly undertaken by organizations that demand political autonomy for Silesia and put forward demands for the recognition of the Silesian nationality, academic circles are in the main wary, if not apprehensive. As a result, the role of the elite seeking to work out grammatical standards and spelling convention for the Silesian language in the making, being created in a top-down fashion, has been largely taken over by local associations of people wishing to revive the Silesian regional dialect, with a little support of professional and academic staff. Future fortunes of the would-be Silesian language depend on many factors: on whether the legal status of a regional language will be granted or not, on the quality of work of those who have embarked on attempts to carry out agenda that includes works on the standard spelling convention for the language, and on the Silesians themselves and their acceptance of the solutions that are to be imposed in a top-down fashion. Another contributing factor will undoubtedly be the elevation of the Silesian language status through a creation of the language corpus (literature, dictionaries, course books) and broadening of its functional scope.

Towards a German Romantic Concept of the Ballad: Goethe’s “Johanna Sebus” and Its Musical Interpretations by Zelter and Reichardt

Towards a German Romantic Concept of the Ballad: Goethe’s “Johanna Sebus” and Its Musical Interpretations by Zelter and Reichardt Francien Markx In the midst of the political turmoil of the Napoleonic wars, the force of nature took its toll on the French-occupied lower Rhine region. On January 13, 1809, the dam near Cleve (lying today in Germany near the Dutch border) collapsed, and the icy waters of the Rhine devastated the village of Brienen and flooded several other villages nearby. A seventeen-year-old village girl, Johanna Sebus, saved her mother’s life but died herself trying to rescue her neighbors. Three months later, her body was found, and she was buried with honor near the old Gothic church in Rindern.1 Her selfless deed was not forgotten, which was especially due to the efforts of the magistrate of the Cleve district, Baron Charles de Keverberg, who brought the events to the attention of the French authorities. In 1811, a monument was erected to Johanna’s memory. Designed by Dominique Vivant-Denon, whom Napoleon had appointed as first director of the Louvre Museum (at that time known as the Musée Napoléon), it is over three meters high, featuring a French text, and a marble medallion depicting a rose floating on the waves.2 Johanna’s death continues to be commemorated, most recently with an exhibition in Cleve on the 200th anniversary of her demise.3 Her courageous act has also inspired many painters, sculptors, and authors.4 The most famous and influential contribution was penned by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who honored Johanna with a ballad in May 1809. Goethe learned about Johanna’s tragic death from his acquaintance Christiane von Vernejoul, who sent him the report of the events written by Baron Keverberg and requested in an accompanying letter: “Mögten Sie die rührende That werth finden von dem ersten Dichter der lebenden Welt, in einer Ballade verewigt zu werden—so wäre dießem edlen Mädchen ein Denckmal errichtet, welches in jedes fühlenden Menschen Brust Bewunderung für die Heldin, und heißen Danck für den Großmüthigen Dichter erwecken würde.”5 Goethe honored the request6 and sent his ballad to Keverberg in Cleve, where it was read at a memorial service for Johanna.7 Among the composers who were inspired by the ballad were Goethe’s contemporaries Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758–1832) and Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752–1814).8 Both were well acquainted with Goethe, and at [End Page 1] some point in their lives his most important musical advisor. Reichardt, Kapellmeister to three Prussian kings, was a renowned music critic and song composer, and had worked closely together with Goethe during the late 1780s and early 1790s on the Singspiele Claudine von Villa Bella and Erwin und Elmire.9 Goethe, however, abruptly ended the collaboration after Reichardt’s sympathies with the French revolution and its democratic cause had become public and his subsequent dismissal as Prussian Hofkapellmeister in 1794. Around this time, the master mason Zelter turned to composing Lieder, and his songs soon came to Goethe’s attention. A close friendship developed, resulting in an extensive correspondence that lasted over thirty years. Zelter was an important figure in Berlin’s musical and cultural life; he took over the direction of the Berlin Singakademie in 1800, was appointed Professor of Music at the Royal Prussian Akademie der Künste in 1809 and responsible for the founding of several musical institutions in Berlin. Together with Johann Abraham Peter Schulz (1747–1800), Zelter and Reichardt were the main representatives of the zweite Berliner Liederschule (ca. 1770–1814). In their Lieder, this second generation of song composers in Berlin tried to find an adequate musical idiom for the new subjective expression of the literature of Empfindsamkeit and Sturm und Drang. The natural, artless quality of the Volkslied, with its regular strophic structure and simple and singable melody, was the ideal for this new form of art song, which nurtured the awakening feelings of German self-awareness and cultural identity.10 For both Reichardt and Zelter, texts by Goethe formed an important inspiration in their search for a new...

P-227 - At the basis of the identity. The delusional misidentification syndromes

Background The Delusional Misidentification Syndromes (MDS) are a group of monothematic delusions where the process of misidentification affects selectively people, objects and places. Their common denominator is a disturbance of the identification of the object, final stage of the mechanism of perception. Method From the context of DMS, and specifically of the personal identification delusions (PID) whose main characteristics are recalled, the objective is here to study the basic elements of the concept of identity. Results Two main basis for self-recognition are detailed: the body and the subject's name. The body is the privileged place where the identity of the subject appears in its singularity. Merleau-Ponty regarded it as the stable structure of existence, “place of appropriation of the world”, allowing the existence of objects. It appears in two ways as a support of the identity, while linking it on one hand to the subject about who feels it like its own, and on the other hand to others who recognize it as the one of the subject. The name acts as a “classifier of lineage” according to Levi-Strauss, by locating the subject and its family from the rest of the social group. It enrolls the individual in a temporality punctuated by the difference between generations. Conclusion The feeling of identity appears as an inner certitude which impregnates all experience. Mental illness can question it, like delusions centered on identity by referring to the fundamental question of the origin.

Territórios, memória e etnicidade no espaço urbano de Kourou- Guiana Francesa - DOI 10.5216/ag.v4i12.12780

The configuration of space center of Kourou, city of French Guiana in Pan-Amazon, is marked by cohabitation with ethnic differences, creating a controversial relationship and sometimes litigious. In this context, the spatialities of the ethnic groups of Kourou are appropriated by representations and symbologies rooted in the collective memory which provides a concret referential element of apprehension of the identity feeling : the territory.

What happens to personal identity when semantic knowledge degrades? A study of the self and autobiographical memory in semantic dementia

While the self has been extensively explored in amnesic patients with severe episodic but not semantic memory disturbance, little is known about the self in semantic dementia (SD), which generally features the reverse pattern of impairment. In the present study, we investigated the structural (self-representations) and functional (consciousness) dimensions of the self in a group of eight SD patients in the early to moderate stages of the disease. We used two original tasks designed to probe both structural characteristics, namely the strength and the certainty of self-concept and the episodic/semantic nature of self-representations, and functional characteristics, namely autonoetic/noetic level of consciousness, self-evaluation and self-projection into the past, present and future. Results for the structural self showed impairment on the semantic aspects of the self-representations, except for those related to the present. Moreover, SD patients were affected regardless of the episodic or semantic nature of self-representations into the future. As regards the functional self, self-projection and level of consciousness were only impaired for the future. This study confirms the persistence of a feeling of identity in SD over time for the past and present selves. However, it also highlights the loss of the future self in SD patients. These results are discussed in relation to models of long-term memory and future thinking focusing on the interplay of episodic and semantic memory and mental time travel.

The Consolidation of the Latin American City and the Undermining of Social Cohesion

The paper examines possible sources of urban disorder and their impact on social disorganization in two times periods in Latin America. The first period is that of the region's rapid urbanization (c. 1950–1980) and the second is the current period of low rates of urbanization and slow urban growth, particularly true of the largest cities. Unlike in the US, Latin American urbanization in the first period produced social disorganization that in turn gave rise to social organization and local cohesion. The paper focuses on the intervening factors that mediate the link between poverty/inequality and social cohesion. These include the pattern of settlement of the city through different types of migration, the pattern of residential segregation in the city, and the nature of poverty. Social cohesion is defined in terms of the nature of social relationships and in terms of feelings of trust and identity with others at both neighborhood and city level. The spatial, demographic, and economic sources of disorder are hypothesized to have a positive impact on social cohesion in the first period relative to the second period when the impact is more negative.

Fast profits: Investor sentiment and stock returns during Ramadan

Observed by more than 1.5 billion Muslims, Ramadan is one of the most celebrated religious traditions in the world. We investigate stock returns during Ramadan for 14 predominantly Muslim countries over the years 1989–2007. The results show that stock returns during Ramadan are significantly higher and less volatile than during the rest of the year. No discernible declines in market liquidity are recorded. We find these results consistent with a notion that Ramadan positively affects investor psychology, as it promotes feelings of solidarity and social identity among Muslims world-wide, leading to optimistic beliefs that extend to investment decisions.

The Problem of Cultural Identity in the Contemporary Archaeological Practice

The decades-long reconsideration of the concept of culture in archaeology has been aimed at overcoming the traditional culture-historical concept, assuming culture as a relatively stable and homogeneous system of values characteristic of a certain group or a community of people. The practice of cultural classification of artefacts, based upon the premise that people linked by the production and usage of stylistically homogeneous material culture form a group with the feeling of communal identity, has been criticized as a reflection of ethnocentric projection of the modern idea of cultural identity.
 In spite of numerous critics of this concept, developed under the influence of various theoretical strains from the beginning of the 1960s, it seems that the implicit assumption is still present of the communal cultural identity of a group linked by the communal material culture. Furthermore, an attempt to counteract the critique and offer a multicultural interpretation of the past brings in the danger to rehabilitate the very concept of culture which archaeology has been trying to abandon for decades.

Europese studentenmobiliteit als hefboom voor Europese identiteitsvorming?

Since the introduction of the Erasmus programme in 1987, student mobility has become more visible. One underlying rationale of Erasmus and other international exchange programmes is the promotion of a European feeling of identity. In this article, the authors study the influence of European student mobility on European identity using a mixed-method approach. The quantitative part consists of an online survey, conducted among students at ten universities in seven countries, at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year. The qualitative part consists of 32 semi structured in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions, conducted with students at four European universities. The analysis shows that a study period abroad influences the development of an “experience-based Europe”. This experience of Europe adds a social dimension to the political and cultural definition of the term, and is the result of socialisation processes that are characterised by internal and external identity observations.

Identitat i postmodernitat: els nous mecanismes identitaris del segle XXI

La definitiva irrupció de l’era postmoderna ha tingut una projecció més que evident en el camp de les identitats, tant en la seva dimensió individual com ara també en la col·lectiva. Si fins a meitat del segle XX, va ser la solidesa dels Estats-Nació qui s’encarregà de modelar els sentiments identitaris, els darrers decennis han contemplat l’entrada de nous actors susceptibles de condicionar aquest fenomen, com ara les noves tecnologies de la informació i comunicació. L’herència d’aquest nou escenari, ha estat l’aparició d’unes identitats més ambigües i volàtils les quals romanen contínuament influenciades per una multitud de referents.

Distinctive alcohol cultural practices amongst Niuean men living in Auckland, New Zealand

The aim of this paper is to describe some of the distinctive cultural practices evident in Niuean men's drinking behaviours. The paper is also intended to illustrate that alcohol is an integral aspect of the Niuean culture and part of the system of cultural exchange. Alcohol has become an integral component of Niuean cultural rituals to the extent that celebrations and festivals are thought to be incomplete if alcohol is not present. Alcohol is used as a tool for expressing cultural values such as fakaalofa (gifting), generosity, respect, status and host obligations. Finally, alcohol is used as a symbol of ‘being Niuean’ and being a ‘real’ Niuean man. This paper will describe how practices specific to Niuean men such as drinking the ‘Niuean way’ and kalaga are symbols that help to reinforce men's cultural identity, enhancing their feeling of communal identity. It is important to emphasize that it is difficult to divorce the ‘cultural’ components of Niuean men's drinking styles from their drinking and behaviour more generally. Culture shapes people's values and behaviours. Although this paper points to some of the specific and distinctively ‘cultural’ aspects of Niuean drinking, we must recognize that all of the participants’ drinking behaviours and attitudes are likely to have been shaped by their cultural and social context. Furthermore, this paper provides only a brief snapshot of how culture and alcohol are intertwined for Niuean men. Educational programmes and host responsibility guidelines need to be culturally appropriate to suit the needs of the Niuean community. Further work is needed to elucidate this complex topic.

Vers une “écriture métisse”: le roman des immigrants haïtiens du Québec

The aim of this paper is to recognize the manifestations of the cultural hybridization (metissage) among Haitian novelists who immigrated to Quebec. After some sociological characteristics of the migrant writing, the main aesthetics features will be observed on diachronic level: during the 1970s, when the place of the country of origin dominate the representation, during the 1980s when the feeling of split identity increase the effects of hybridity, and since the middle of 1980s when the Haitian writers assume their exile by entering into an intercultural, dialogic relationship with their abandoned country.

“To See Ourselves as Others See Us”: On the Implications of Reflected Appraisals for Ethnic Identity and Discrimination

This study examined how immigrants’ feelings of ethnic identity align with their perceptions of how other people see them, and how these reflected appraisals from others contribute to immigrants’ experience of discrimination. First-generation ( N = 94) and second-generation ( N = 140) Chinese Canadians completed a questionnaire which assessed their ethnic identity and the reflected appraisals of members from Chinese and Anglo Canadian communities across four situational domains (family, friends, university, community). The results showed that both generations generally felt that they were regarded by both Chinese and Anglo Canadians as more Chinese than they felt themselves but indicated few discrepancies between self- and reflected appraisals of Canadian identity. Reflected appraisals were associated with the experience of personal discrimination only in the second-generation group. The discussion emphasizes the importance of a situational perspective on ethnic identity and underscores important differences between generational groups in their experience of identity and discrimination.

Adaptive Actions

Adaptive Actions initiated in London in 2007 by Jean-Francois Prost explores alterations in the workplace, the home, and public spaces in general. Identifying the variety of these personal and found alterations in the city as different forms of adaptation creates a vocabulary for the expression of the collective imagination, through the existing urban structures therein. These ‘actions’ modify and activate the intended use of architecture and enhance the character of urban environments. They create positive tensions that test the limits of tolerated appropriation. Can these simple actions, images, and ideas, such as the hybridization of conventional and unusual urban realities, infiltrate our collective imagination to promote feelings of identity and a sense of cultural belonging? Adaptive Actions points to how urban phenomena impact on residents’ perception of the environment and their relation to it. By offering a space to share experiences, ideas, forms of actions, and specific accomplishments, Adaptive Actions creates an inventory of alterations rarely visible to the public. Printed documents and organized events are being planned to increase visibility of the selected actions to the public eye and build affiliations and communal thinking.

Sharing memories, family conversation and interaction

Shared memories play a central role in everyday communications. They are usually based on interpersonal and cultural knowledge of a shared past among group members (e.g. family, friends, partners, etc.). These memories are verbally conveyed in everyday conversations in real-world settings. Shared memories are also utilized to create a feeling of connection and maintain a consistent feeling of identity among group members. In family conversations, shared memories function to structure and synchronize the shareable life story of the family as a group. Family members are strategically engaged in processes of remembering and forgetting, which are modelled according to the specific goals of a particular interaction. In these cases, family members construct a sociocognitive system shaped by the physical and social environment in which they are located. This system operates by connecting autobiographical knowledge, which is distributed among family members, but forms part of shared past experiences. By interrelating distributed episodic memories, this sociocognitive system endows family members with the ability to manage distributed autobiographical knowledge. In order to perform this cognitive task, they make use of a wide set of discursive epistemic strategies such as presuppositions and implicatures, justifications, rejections and reminders of shared knowledge of the past. The aim of this article is to show the ways in which a shared past is managed, communicated and negotiated in an everyday family conversation by means of discursive epistemic strategies. The conversation was about five historical dates linked to Argentinean political history.

Le donne e il lavoro negli anni della grande immigrazione interna

Papers by the following authors: Anna Badino, Michele Colucci, Flavia Cumoli, Pietro Pinna, Grazia Prontera, Sandro Rinauro, Roberto Sala and Giovanna Massariello Merzagora, Laura Sudati, are here introduced and discussed by Patrizia Audenino and Ercole Sori. Due to the great difference existing among these researches, attention is focused on some common issues, trying to detect main methodological innovations and their most important gains the field of migration studies. First of all must be noticed that all these researches (with the only exception of the Pinna’s one) are focused on the second half of the twentieth century, a period so far largely neglected by the historical research on Italian migrations. An important common approach is the declared effort to study migrations in order to achieve a better knowledge of Italian history. Other important common issues are a renovated attention paid to history of institutions, with the innovative approach of considering them from the point of view of emigrants, asking questions on the effect on the life and work of the migrants of the politics adopted by the Italian institutions. In doing so, most of authors make an extensive use of documents produced by emigrants themselves, as letters and interviews. This kind of documents allows also to bring new insights on the building of the identity feeling among migrants.

Living up to Expectations: The Strengths and Challenges Experienced by Chinese Canadian Students

This article reviews qualitative and quantitative studies related to the academic achievement of youth from immigrant Chinese families. Overall, the literature suggests that Chinese Canadian students demonstrate high levels of achievement and that this academic success is associated with factors such as stronger feelings of ethnic identity, better English language skills in the family, Chinese cultural values, parental emphasis on schooling, and access to social networks that support achievement. Barriers to high achievement are created by stress in the home, experiences of peer discrimination, cultural differences in school-related expectations, and obstacles to parental involvement in schooling. Importantly, despite high average levels of achievement, the reviewed literature also highlights the psychological and social struggles that many Chinese youth experience. High achievement for some Chinese Canadian adolescents comes at a cost of other aspects of their well-being. In particular, intense parental expectations for these youth, as well as the extremely high standard set by the “model minority” stereotype of Chinese youth, contribute to students’ psychological distress and alienation from parents and peers. Furthermore, the almost exclusive attention to high achievement among Chinese youth ignores those Chinese youth who are not high achievers. Implications are discussed for educational policy and practice related to the schooling of Chinese Canadian youth specifically, as well as youth from families with diverse ethnic backgrounds more generally.

Germans Divided? Political Culture in a United Germany

German unification was primarily a policy and economic challenge to unify two fundamentally different socio-political systems. In addition, it was a cultural challenge to unify two political cultures that had widely divergent histories. This article examines some of the basic aspects of cultural divide that were created by German unification. We first compare feelings of national identity between West and East, finding a lingering Eastern attachment to an Ostdeutsche identity. Second, we examine attitudes towards democracy, finding a convergence in support for democratic principles but persisting differences in approval of the functioning of the democratic process. Third, we describe attitudes toward the role of the state, demonstrating the more expansive role favoured by Easterners. We conclude that significant differences in these aspects of the political culture endure even 20 years after unification. Still, we are more sanguine that these differences do not pose fundamental political problems, and some Eastern sentiments might even benefit politics in the Federal Republic.

Physiopathologie de la mémoire autobiographique dans le vieillissement : distinction épisodique/sémantique, données cliniques et études en neuroimagerie

From an early age, autobiographical memory models our feeling of identity and continuity. It grows throughout lifetime with our experiences and is built up from general self-knowledge and specific memories. The study of autobiographical memory depicts the dynamic and reconstructive features of this type of long-term memory, combining both semantic and episodic aspects, its strength and fragility. In this article, we propose to illustrate the properties of autobiographical memory from the field of cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and neuroimaging research through the analysis of the mechanisms of disturbance in normal and Alzheimer's disease. We show that the cognitive and neural bases of autobiographical memory are distinct in both cases. In normal aging, autobiographical memory retrieval is mainly dependent on frontal/executive function and on sense of reexperiencing specific context connected to hippocampal regions regardless of memory remoteness. In Alzheimer's disease, autobiographical memory deficit, characterized by a Ribot's temporal gradient, is connected to different regions according to memory remoteness. Our functional neuroimaging results suggest that patients at the early stage can compensate for their massive deficit of episodic recent memories correlated to hippocampal alteration with over general remote memories related to prefrontal regions. On the whole, the research findings allowed initiating new autobiographical memory studies by comparing normal and pathological aging and developing cognitive methods of memory rehabilitation in patients based on preserved personal semantic capacity.