Historical Discourse Research Articles

Language, Trauma, and Medicine: A Review Essay of John Zilcosky's The Language of Trauma and a Defense of Trauma Theory

Abstract: John Zilcosky's The Language of Trauma comprehensively links such authors as E.T.A. Hoffman, Sigmund Freud, and Franz Kafka, revealing that their familiar notions of the uncanny are not simply mystifying universal concepts, but rather deeply rooted in the entanglements of overlapping historical discourses grounded in the trauma of modernity itself.

The Strength of Ibn Rushd's Integration of Religion and Philosophy: An Islamic Historical Discourse

Ibn Rushd’s thoughts on the integration of religion and philosophy exerted a major influence on Medieval Jewish, Christian and Islamic philosophy. However, a study that writes the full concept of Ibn Rushd’s integration and its advantages has yet to be found. This study aims to thoroughly analyze Ibn Rushd’s concept of the integration of religion and philosophy, discover the strengths of the integration, and identify its logical consequences. This study uses the content analysis method with primary sources as the main data. The results of the study indicate that (1) Ibn Rushd integrates religion and philosophy by combining three things from religion and philosophy: sources, methods, and goals. (2) The strength of Ibn Rushd’s integration lies in the integrity of the aspects involved, the placement of ratios at a very high position, the principle that philosophical thinking is part of religious order, and the use of allegorical interpretation (ta’wil) of the holy verses. The implication shows that religion and philosophy become inseparable, and the movement for integration must be a movement towards each other, between religion and philosophy. Ibn Rushd’s thoughts on integration can be the basis of the efforts to integrate contemporary religion and science.

Four types of Social Innovation and their impact on democracy in the 21st century

In modern history, there are various types of social innovation that have changed the world in different ways. In part, they go hand in hand with democratisation processes, but especially in the 21st century they harbour potential that threatens democracy. In this article, four types of social innovation are derived from the history of discourse and analysed in terms of their connection with democracy. The article argues that, especially in complex times, the acceptance of the new depends on how democratically it comes about and that, while strengthening democratic innovations is central to Europe's future, they are challenged by authoritarian notions of innovation. As a decisive parameter for a successful improvement or preservation of democratic systems, the article highlights the importance of the broadest possible inclusion, representation and participation in all four types.

Four types of Social Innovation and their impact on democracy in the 21st century

In modern history, there are various types of social innovation that have changed the world in different ways. In part, they go hand in hand with democratisation processes, but especially in the 21st century they harbour potential that threatens democracy. In this article, four types of social innovation are derived from the history of discourse and analysed in terms of their connection with democracy. The article argues that, especially in complex times, the acceptance of the new depends on how democratically it comes about and that, while strengthening democratic innovations is central to Europe's future, they are challenged by authoritarian notions of innovation. As a decisive parameter for a successful improvement or preservation of democratic systems, the article highlights the importance of the broadest possible inclusion, representation and participation in all four types.

Beauty Against the Grain: The Great Gatsby

With The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald created a narrative frame intertwined with the historical discourse of the Dutch sailors and the American Dream. However, Fitzgerald’s handling of the passing of time calls for another interpretation. Gatsby’s past is to be intended both as a loss and as a source of strength. But the moment he “has” Daisy, Gatsby has come to the end of possibility. With this in mind, the narrative is not about Gatsby’s love for the beautiful Daisy, wife of Tom Buchanan, ex-football star. Instead, it is the successful attempt to recapture the past, the paradoxical beauty of beating against the current. And in this purpose, there is no defeat.

Historia sztuki w polu metodologii. Aktualne problemy i wyzwania

At the end of the 20th century, the theory of art history shifted from the area of methodology understood as a normative field of the philosophy of science to the area of the social practice of constructing knowledge. The term “art historical methodology” itself became trivialized when its meaning was detached from the horizon of epistemology and became extremely inclusive, encompassing all methods practised in the discipline, with a method being considered to be the use of any theory as a tool of interpretation. As a consequence, the basic problem of scientific methodology, which is the critical assessment of explanatory and interpretive theories due to the value of their justification, is not addressed in the self-reflection of contemporary art history. The retreat from the rigors of methodology was related to the reception of structuralism, initiated by Ernst Gombrich in the book Art and Illusion. Popper’s model of situational logic as a method of historical explanation of works of art was transformed into a structuralist model, referring to constant rules of pictorial representation, symbolization and communication. Michael Fried and Norman Bryson formulated their own theories of invariant rules defining the necessary initial conditions for the formation and reception of pictures, so that individual works could be interpreted in terms of these rules and, as a result, confirm the general theory, which created a vicious circle. Structuralist theories did not function as hypotheses requiring critical testing, but as interpretive codes that served to read each work of art within their own conceptual system. The next step in the process of the reception of structuralism was the development of theories defining general rules that would govern the discursive practice of art history, and the detection of which at the basis of this practice would discredit or invalidate its epistemological dimension. Hayden White’s narrativism was the theory that historical discourse is subject to narrative conventions, not to the laws of logic and the rigors of methodology that serve to limit the pool of alternative explanations or interpretations. This theory was intended to justify the pluralism of equal versions of history as a politically correct idea, appropriate for a “democratic” model of knowledge. Theorists developing White’s theses in the field of art history claimed that the discursive practice of this discipline was not governed by methodological rules but by political motivations (Keith Moxey) or aesthetic principles of artwriting (David Carrier). After the phase of open denial of the dependence of the art history discourse on methodology, the theory of the discipline turned into an analysis of techniques for building this discourse, which no longer included methodological issues, as in James Elkins’ book Our Beautiful, Dry, and Distant Texts. A critical review of theories separating art history from methodology leads to the conclusion that they are untenable. It is impossible to maintain the scientific status of our discipline without respecting the principles of methodology founded in the contemporary philosophy of science.

The Letters of John H. Crowder

In the midst of the American Civil War, sixteen-year-old John H. Crowder, a free person of color, penned a series of letters that offer insight into the experiences, hopes, obstacles, and discrimination faced by young African Americans during the nineteenth century. Serving in the Louisiana Native Guard, one of the Union’s pioneering regiments that welcomed people of color, Crowder writes to declare his youthful ambitions and his unwavering resilience against his often disapproving superior officers. Additionally, within these letters Crowder’s profound love for his mother and a female friend is revealed, along with his determination to secure a stable future for the women in his life. The preservation of Crowder’s letters, alongside the story of his mother's pursuit of a military pension after Crowder’s death, brings to light the oft-overlooked contributions and experiences of African Americans in the post-Antebellum South. In this “Spotlight on Juvenilia,” I delve into the story behind the preservation of Crowder’s letters, exploring the unique challenges and triumphs experienced by young African Americans, as well as their significant role in shaping the Civil War narrative. Moreover, I emphasize the importance of amplifying diverse historical perspectives, particularly those of youth and people of color. By shedding light on the interplay between personal agency and societal constraints for Crowder, this exploration underscores the significance of his community’s voices in reshaping historical discourses and highlights the far-reaching implications of their experiences during this pivotal period in history.

Access to bank loans in economic transition: An oral history approach

By means of the oral history method, this paper examines the factors that facilitated access to loans in the early years of Czechoslovak transition. Giving voice to entrepreneurs, bankers, and policymakers, I show that the research based on this approach is complementary to scholarly written literature, as it fills in the gaps and offers the human dimension of historical events. The oral history narratives are an essential part of the historical discourse and have enormous potential for explaining and understanding the experience of businessmen and bankers in periods of huge turmoil such as pivoting from a centrally planned economy to capitalism. Three dominant motifs emerged in our interviews that relate to who got credit in the early years of transition: (1) pressure from the government; (2) the debts from socialism and other criteria for granting loans; and finally (3) social capital and corruption.

ПОСТМОДЕРНІСТСЬКЕ ПРОЧИТАННЯ МІСТЕРІЇ «НАРОДЖЕННЯ ЛЮДИНИ. ДОБРО І ЗЛО НА СВІТІ»: СПРОБА СУЧАСНОЇ РЕЦЕПЦІЇ ФІЛОСОФСЬКИХ І ПОЕТИКАЛЬНИХ ДОМІНАНТ ІВАНА ОГІЄНКА

Ivan Ohiienko, as a historical and creative personality from among those who formed the idea of Ukrainianness at the beginning of the 20th century, during the active national liberation struggles, in contrast to the harmful utopian ideas of Bolshevism, needs special attention in the stormy present. The toolkit of literary postmodernism provides rich opportunities for rereading previously written works. In the case of the philosophical mysteries of Ivan Ohienko, we are talking about those texts that were not noticed by critics at the time of publication and did not receive a thorough ideo-logical and textual analysis. Therefore, the approach proposed in the current study is partly compensatory regarding the proper appreciation of Metropolitan Hilarion’s works. Therefore, the article attempts to reread Ivan Ohienko’s mystery «The Birth of Man. Good and Evil in the world» in view of those semiotic, structural and poetic markers that enable the modern reception of ideological markers in the direction of the postmodern worldview paradigm, dominant for the modern reader. The integra-tion of the text into the modern philosophical, cultural, historical discourse based on the technique of careful reading is a winning solution in an eff ort to reasonably give the author’s philosophical mysteries a new life, but not using far-fetched journalistic generalizations, torn from the fabric of the text itself. The proposed method of text analysis, based on the technique of close reading, made it possible to identify numer-ous features that fully or partially correspond to the creative searches of modern post-modern authors, namely: the idea of the relativity of truth, the fullness of human life with suff ering, the idea of the futility of trying to know the world, the futility of scien-tifi c knowledge of the world, the harmful infl uence of the crowd on creative individu-alism, the abandonment of man in this world, the lack of a clear distinction between good and evil, truth and wrong, in particular due to the appropriation of the right to produce the truth (often it belongs to the crowd or a representative of the crowd), etc. In the spirit of deconstructivism, the author involuntarily constructed replicas of the forces of Evil more convincingly than the fi nal plot decision in favor of the dominant and fi nal victory of Good. At least the situation in the world today proves that, unlike the plot of the mystery, Evil has not lost the fi nal battle for the soul of Man, but is still winning in an unequal existential struggle. The use of this type of text analysis can be useful for re-reading the texts of other literary fi gures, important in the paradigm of culture-creating and nation-creating Ukrainian continuum.

“Excluded from Memory”: The Question of Passing Down National History

This article considers the (partial) “exclusion” or “self-exclusion” of the “complex heritage” descendants from the “inheritance” of the official narratives of national history. As a rule, such discourses rely on antagonistic logic. In the article, the idea of “complex heritage” descendants denotes people whose family history includes both representatives of mutually exclusive groups (from the point of view of different public discourses of memory). When any single discourse is dominant in the public space or in a competition between antagonistic discourses of national history, descendants of “complex heritage” must independently cope with the emerging internal tension and discomfort (if they arise). In this article, in the context of common European trends, the author shows and analyses different options for such reactions with reference to competing discourses of national history in Russia, i. e., “Triumph” (Victory in the Great Patriotic War) and “Tragedy” (the era of political repression), as well as the most massive public practice of memory dedicated to the Great Patriotic War heroes: the civil event known as the “Immortal Regiment”. The analysis refers to forty indepth interviews conducted by the author in 2021–2023 with descendants of the repressed from the third, fourth, and further generations (as well as those who fought and showed themselves differently in the past). The author relies on the concept of antagonistic memory, supplemented by the ideas of Ts. Todorov on the principles of working with the “difficult past”, the theory of post-memory by M. Hirsch and others. As a result of the research, the author draws the following conclusions: first, the experience of “exclusion” from national history due to the lack of blood ancestors that give the right for “inclusion” into the “fundamental myth of the nation” really exists; second, in the conditions of (even unequal) competition of antagonistic discourses, the descendants of the “complex heritage” find themselves constrained between the narrow limits of each of them. At the same time, the need to meet externally set criteria and the impossibility of doing this lead to resistance to the imposed public antagonistic models of understanding the past; finally, those “excluded” from national history in one or different interpretations thereof, the descendants collect, preserve, and transmit their family histories as “heritage” in the full diversity and inconsistency, as life itself, and the circumstances in which their ancestors were placed.

Sexual consent in the Spanish Criminal Code: shadows of its political and legal construction through the Law on the Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom

The criminal regulation of sexual crimes in Spain has recently been modified in order to include a consent-based definition of rape. From a feminist framework, this socio-legal research calls this criminal reform into question. Specifically, the main objective is to study the potentialities and constraints of the legal element of sexual consent to meet women's lived experiences and their ways of performing gender. Drawing on the works of feminism and legal feminism of the last century that dismantled heteropatriarchal sexual politics, as well as relying on current feminist approaches to consent, I expose the shadows, grey areas, and deep-rooted assumptions that underlie the political-legal construction of this hackneyed concept. To do so, I primarily use Carol Bacchi's critical policy analysis in order to explore the Spanish criminal policy discourse concerning this penal modification. In my analysis I examine the preparatory works of the legislative amendment as well as selected oral debates held in the Congress of Deputies and in the Equality Commission. The main findings show how this policy contradicts and collides head-on with many foundational contributions of feminist theory in relation to sexual violence. Nonetheless, relying on broader historical discourses of human rights and international law and repeatedly alluding to the feminist social movement, as well as due to the functionality of the modern notion of consent in a neoliberal system, this legislative amendment enjoys a high level of acceptance.

Many Colors of History

In his Time and Narrative, Ricœur introduces the term of “third time” to designate the middle ground between human and natural time. This time is synonymous with historical time, which is the main source of historical discourse. The third time consists of inscribing human time onto the time of nature. While historiography must strictly follow this structure, works of fiction have the freedom to explore and even create imaginative variations of time. Despite the constraints this seems to impose on historical writing, this article shows that even within the tight structure of historical time, a palette of various colors and shades, akin to imaginative variations, can be observed. Historical time possesses depth and speed; it can contract and relax, motivate or prevent action, or gain various dynamics in relation to the ending it offers.

Семейная история и семейная память в России 2020-х годов

The author explores how chronicle and memoirs, history and memory reconstruct the past, while simultaneously influencing each other, using the methodological division of commemorative resources. The empirical basis of the study is the data of surveys conducted by the scientific group of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2022. The sociological data help the author to clarify how today, in the postmemory era, the private and family memory of our compatriots responds to the state historical discourse and to what extent family history acts as a means of reconstructing the national past. With the growing interest of Russians in their own identity and their inclusion in digital communication, the popularity of genealogical projects is increasing, with the help of which not only family memory, but also national history, is reconstructed, and the perception of the past is changing. Information about family history is the most important source of information about national history. Emotionally and meaningfully rich stories from eyewitnesses increase the historical interest of their children and grandchildren. History as a resource of identity turns post-memory carriers — close relatives, civil society, and bureaucracy — into creators of memory, and therefore history makers. One of the most striking examples of genealogical mnemonic, which became possible due to the post-memorial commemoration, as well as the digitalization of archival information about the war period, is the Immortal Regiment project, which symbolically connects national history and family memory. With the help of digitized archival data and virtual genealogy projects, many Russians are successfully reconstructing family history, especially when unknown circumstances of family history are felt as a “premonition” of family memory. The “incompleteness” of stories of a significant part of Russian families, primarily about the 1930—1950 time period, gives rise to a demand for historical authenticity, but the perception of the past through the circumstances of the lives of relatives makes such perception less “white-or-black”, calling for a balanced and “understanding” assessment of history, whatever it may be.

The Audiovisual Style of Malcolm Clarkes Oral History Documentary

This article is primarily dedicated to an in-depth examination of the audio-visual style employed by documentary filmmaker Malcolm Clarke. This analysis is achieved through a meticulous dissection of scenes, shot composition, and sound elements within three of his notable oral history documentaries, namely, A Long-Cherished Dream, The Lady in Number 6, and Soldiers in Hiding. The article initiates by offering insights into the concept and evolution of oral history documentaries as a distinct subgenre within the broader documentary realm. Subsequently, the article embarks on a critical evaluation of how Clarkes documentaries align with the specific attributes and expectations associated with oral history documentaries. It scrutinizes how Clarke adeptly harnesses a diverse array of cinematic techniques to unearth and present the often-overlooked facets of history, which remain concealed or marginalized within the grander narrative of historical discourse. Through this comprehensive analysis, the article provides a comprehensive assessment of Malcolm Clarkes contribution to the realm of documentary filmmaking and his unique approach to elucidating the lesser-explored dimensions of history.

Trust Through Publicity?


 
 
 The relationship between political trust, the public sphere and transparency or pub- licity has thus far been analyzed mainly from the perspective of political philosophy and the political and social sciences. Within historical research, however, it is rarely discussed. This article combines systemic and historical approaches to this complex and ambivalent relationship and places it in the context of the development of public spheres. From the perspective of the history of ideas and discourses, the article argues that the emergence, shifts and ambivalences of political public spheres played a signif- icant role in the development of the relationship between trust and transparency in the modern age. Using examples from the epoch of the Enlightenment and liberalism, particularly with regard to constitutional debates in the nineteenth and twentieth cen- turies, the contradictory place of trust and control in publicity demands and the polit- ical discourse can be demonstrated. It becomes apparent that, in the development of constitutional democracy, an institutionalized distrust—among others, by means of publicity or transparency—established a basis whereon political trust could emerge. Thereby, a primarily problem-oriented, genetic perspective proves to be particularly fruitful in examining the relationship between political trust, publicity and transpar- ency, including its structural complexities and ambivalences.
 
 

Dyskursy historyczne państw bałtyckich jako instrument ochrony młodych demokracji po rozpadzie ZSRR

HISTORICAL DISCOURSES OF THE BALTIC STATES AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF YOUNG DEMOCRACIES AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE USSR: SELECTED ASPECTSThe aim of the article is to discuss selected elements of the historical policy of the Baltic states, tracing the process of shaping their official historical discourse – from post-Soviet nationalist narratives and the glorification of interwar independence to the pro-Western freedom narrative. The starting point of the research is the hypothesis that the top-down memorisation processes of the Baltic states, the centre of which were anti-Sovietism and nationalism, were an effective instrument for protecting the young democratic systems in the Baltic Sea against both the neo-imperial attempts of Putin’s Russia and the autocratic inclinations characteristic of other countries created after the collapse of the USSR.

The Other World: Diasporas and Their Memories of War

Survivors of genocide living in diaspora face a discontinuity of history and memory that is forced upon them. Theirs is a history that hardly registers in the dominant discourses of history, trauma, and migration in the countries at either end of their journeys. It is not registered in their countries of origin because they left and it fails to make a mark in their countries of arrival because it is a past that is not shared by others. For women survivors of war living in diaspora, the politics of marginalization and an absence of representation of their losses complicate their ability to mourn. This paper offers a brief meditation on representations and framing of the trauma of women survivors of war living in diaspora, and the utility of academic and creative methods, namely Research-Creation, that allow us a re-framing of the narrative by creating a space for feminist solidarity and remembering.

THE ROLE OF THE CAPITAL CITY MAGAZINES IN PRESENTING THE KALMYK ETHNOS TO THE RUSSIAN AUDIENCE IN THE FIRST DECADES OF THE XIX CENTURY

The purpose of the study was to specify the representation of the Kalmyk ethnic group in St. Petersburg and Moscow magazines in the fi rst decades of the XIX century. The study of publications in the journals Vestnik Evropy, Syn Otechestva, Otechestvennye Zapiski, Sibirskiy Vestnik, Severny Arkhiv and other included the volume and details of information about the Kalmyks, the availability of historical and ethnographic information, the characteristics of the ethnic group and / or its individual representatives, the social status of the authors and the genre forms of the materials.The study has found that over the period under consideration the capital city magazines showed a gradually growing interest in the Kalmyk ethnic group, revealing its unusual history and culture to the Russian audience. The publications mainly belonged to contemporary authors, but texts from the XVII–XVIII centuries were also used, which made it possible to demonstrate the ideas about the Kalmyks at diff erent stages of their history.By the social status, the authors included offi cials, travelers, historians, ethnographers, writers, including the European ones and a Chinese one, which contributed to the creation of a diverse picture of the past and the present of the Kalmyk people. At the same time, the depth of topic coverage was determined by the breadth of the author’s outlook, their ability to observe, the degree of understanding and acceptance of a diff erent culture, and the place of the ethnic group in the overall plot of the text. The diff erence between empathy and immersion in culture led the authors in some cases to defi ne the Kalmyks as an “ignorant” people and, on the contrary, as a “shepherd”, demonstrating the highest level of originality. Most often, the texts created a collective image of the people or individual social groups. In historical discourse, the names of the Kalmyk rulers were called. Modern personalities were uncommon, as well as women – only three of them.The representation of the ethnic group was carried out mainly in voluminous genres – historical, ethnographic, historical-ethnographic and travel essays; less often – in the form of portrait sketches and reviews, which allowed magazines to provide diverse information and create a multifaceted image of the Kalmyk people.

이혼에서 파탄주의로의 전환 필요성과 법률개정 방안

In Korea, the Japanese Civil Code was used during the Japanese colonial period, and the Civil Code, a translation of the Japanese Civil Code, was applied until the Korean Civil Code enacted in 1958 was enforced in 1960. The Korean Civil Code is very similar to the Japanese civil law, and the number of articles is significantly smaller and lacks specificity compared to the civil laws of many Western countries. In the case of the divorce law, the deficiencies of such legislation are being supplemented by the interpretation of the courts. Divorce laws in the West, such as Germany, England, France, and the United States, have been revised in the direction of protecting the rights and interests of the parties through numerous historical changes and discussions since the 19th century. Based on the history of changes in various Western countries, Korea will also need to revise the civil law in the direction of fulfilling the state's constitutional duty to protect marriage and family life.
 Through counseling before marriage and divorce, the marriage and family system should be strengthened, and counseling and other educational programs should be activated so that a recoverable family can be saved. In order to minimize conflicts in a marriage relationship that has already been irretrievably broken and exists only legally, no fault divorce based on separation for a certain period of time should be introduced. And in order to protect innocent spouses and children who do not want to divorce, marriage should be terminated only if protective measures or agreements for innocent spouses and children are included in the divorce ruling, and divorce should not be allowed if the divorce threatens to cause economic, social and psychological difficulties for them.
 In addition, if legal separation system where the obligation to cohabit is exempted and a marriage is deemed to have broken down after a certain period of separation is established, I think it can serve as a buffer zone to encourage reunion after separation and also as a gateway from marriage to divorce. The legal separation system can alleviate the impact of divorce, and has an economic effect almost similar to divorce, except that the marriage relationship is legally maintained, so the parties can attempt reconciliation while stably separating for a certain period of time.
 I think it is desirable to unify the divorce procedure by incorporating the divorce by agreement system into the judicial divorce procedure to ensure that the rights and interests of the divorced parties are fully protected. As with the divorce laws of many countries that adopt no fault divorce, even if there is mutual consent to divorce, divorce must be conducted through a trial and should be granted only after court approval of an agreement regarding children and the financial effects of the divorce. Additionally, if a couple with minor children wants to divorce by agreement, counseling should be mandatory.
 In addition, according to the Supreme Court precedent, Korea's property division system has the main purpose of distributing the actual common property acquired during marriage, and the supportive nature such as consideration for the other person's livelihood security is added. Since the current support system is insufficient to protect spouses with poor economic status in that the system is not provided by law, a separate support system after divorce should be prepared like in many Western countries.
 As pointed out by the Supreme Court's ruling in 2015, the fact that the spouse responsible for breakdown of marriage is not allowed to file for divorce is also intended to prevent the other spouse from being expelled by the spouse in the bigamous relationship.

Thucydides, Plato and Stasis

Thucydides and Plato are often read in opposed or equivalent intellectual registers (cf. Strauss, Guthrie, Ober, Mara). If the former, they speak past one another. If the latter, their different purposes have no interpretive effect. This article notes how each seeks to ameliorate stasis by means of different accounts of the logos–ergon relationship; in so doing, it points out political and theoretical differences and similarities. It yields insights into what Thucydides and Plato were doing and saying, and it illustrates how reading each about stasis can bridge undue gaps between the critical discourses of history and political theory and their relationships to democratic thought.