Historiographical Narrative Research Articles

Apresentação. Intersecções do exílio

No campo das artes, processos de migração, voluntários ou forçados, desempenham papel crucial na criação e difusão de ideias, conceitos e novas formas de expressão artística, rompendo barreiras entre "centro" e "periferia", estilhaçando cânones e modelos. A circulação e mobilidade de artistas e agentes culturais nas mais diferentes regiões do globo promoveu a constituição de redes criativas e de coletivos artísticos que cruzaram, por isso, diferentes experiências de desenraizamento cultural, experimentalismo bicultural, projetos artísticos individuais e programas de solidariedade política e social. A associação entre artistas e galeristas, curadores e colecionadores (muitas vezes também eles em migração) nos países de destino deu visibilidade e estruturou essas colaborações criativas, tornando o seu papel relevante em contextos distintos, os de partida e de chegada, articulando deste modo múltiplas realidades e práticas artístico-culturais. Este dossiê sublinha o impacto de projetos colaborativos transculturais na (re)definição de contextos artísticos locais, no agenciamento político e social e no diálogo intercultural, dando particular atenção a grupos formais ou informais que desafiaram narrativas historiográficas, sobretudo as produzidas no universo europeu e norte-americano, diversificaram formas de intervenção e exposição e definiram novas geografias de intercâmbio.

THE YOUTH POLICY HUMANISTIC RELEVANCE OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD: NEWEST NAVIGATION OF FOREIGN HISTORIOGRAPHY

The purpose of the article is historiographic analysis and systematization of the newest narrative of American, Italian, German, English, French and Polish historical, cultural, religious, philosophical and historical-pedagogical studies, which highlighted anthropological intentionality, humanistic and humanistic Catholic Jesuit Order in the early modern period. Due to the historiographical controversy, the principles of scientific, historicist, objectivity, continuity, interdisciplinary, historiographical autopsy are presented in the consideration and evaluation of the sociocultural activity of the Jesuit Order, as well as its confessional affiliation, methodological orientations of the research, denominational neutrality, ecumenism, anthropology, and worldview pluralism. In the basis of the study there is a civilizational understanding of historiography that enables a holistic, systematic, integrated and integrated examination of the contemporary understanding of the humanistic context of early modern Jesuit youth in the humanistic context of European and American scholars. The research novelty, first of all, lies in the field of classification, historiographic analysis and contextual commenting of contemporary foreign studies, whose authors considered the historical and sociocultural aspects of the founding and implementation of Jesuit youth policy, revealed its humanistic content, outlined the subject field for the world. The study deepened the understanding of the civilizational methodology of historiographic research, proposed new approaches to the classification of historiographic narratives of foreign Jesuits, introduced the concept of “conceptual and location historiographic cluster”. The Conclusions. Contemporary Latin historiography of the humanistic content of Jesuit youth policy in the early modern period is sufficiently voluminous, large in scope and subject of study, which is connected, first of all, with the broad amplitude of Jesuit activities in the world for almost five centuries. The consideration of the topic is proposed on the basis of the separation of six conceptually-location historiographic clusters, within which historical studies are combined on the basis of geographical and subject-thematic criteria: general historical (foreign studies, presenting the historical panorama of the genesis of early modern Jesuits youth policy, its preconditions are outlined, the content of the Catholic Reform (Counter-Reformation) is clarified in which the Jesuit monks operated); anthologically synthetical (combining basic studies of contemporary American, Italian, Spanish, German, English, French and Polish Jesuits); historical and anthropological (historical studies that offer a holistic dimension of the humanistic context of the sociocultural activity of the Jesuits); personal (coverage of historical portraits of the founders of Jesuit youth policy, contextual interpretation of their life and creative path); spiritual and theological (analysis of the value, theological and ethical and moral aspects of the Jesuit early modern youth policy); educational and philosophical (review of Jesuit educational practices, their universal system of education and the educational principles of Ratio Studiorum). It is emphasized that contemporary foreign Jesuitism has taken a significant step in refuting the false statements and falsifications that were widespread in the previous historiographical narrative regarding the anti-humanistic and feudal-reaction content of Jesuit social activity. The contemporary foreign Latin Jesuitism is characterized by a value approach in covering the socio-cultural initiatives of the Society of Jesus. Foreign authors do not resort to engaged rhetoric, a myth-speculative style of presentation, which prematurely distinguished the positions of grata and non grata in the formation of historical narrative by unjustified criteria. In solidarity, the scholars emphasized the humanistic relevance of the socio-cultural and educational initiatives of the Society of Jesus to the human-creative and social-organizing task, their focus on the motivation and development of the spiritual, professional and emotional aspects of the individual. Historiographic analysis confirms that modern Latin Jesuitism as a whole reproduces a holistic image of Jesuit humanism, attests to the historical objectivity and social justification of the formation of a modern Jesuit concept of a holistic, complete, solidary and integral humanism as universal holistic understanding.

НАРРАТИВИЗАЦИЯ УКРАИНСКОГО ПРОШЛОГО В КОНЦЕ ХІХ – НАЧАЛЕ ХХІ ВЕКА: ВОЗМОЖНО ЛИ ПРЕОДОЛЕНИЕ?

The basic strategies for constructing the framework of the Ukrainian national historical and historiographic narratives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are analyzed in the first part of the paper. The nationalization of Ukrainian history and historical writing and the decisive role in forming the Ukrainian project of the pre-modern Little Russian nation are shown. The main mechanisms of the process are revealed, such as the historiographic expansion of the Little Russian intellectual range, the consolidation and ethnicization of regional history of the metropolises, the building of linear, teleological constructions, and the anthropologization of the ethnic community. Attention is paid to the technology of forming images of neighbors as contouring enemies. The authors demonstrate the methods for implementing the basic principles of constructing a national narrative in the practice of historical writing. Three competing strategies for creating large Ukrainian national histories that have had a decisive influence on the algorithms of modern didactic, affirmative and analytical historiography are presented. In the second part of the paper, contemporary approaches to the modernization of the traditional national narrative determined during the discussion of 2012−2014 are identified: 1) the deconstruction of national narrative, the rejection of the «tyranny» of asynchronous territoriality, and the development of dual research optics (the methodology of regional history and the integration of national history into the contexts of large cultural communities); 2) the decorative updating of the national narrative through the implementation of a multinational approach; 3) the middle position of «pluralistic indifference», consistent with the arguments of the extreme parties. It is noted that the current socio-political situation has formed an increased demand for the modernization of the ethno-national narrative of the early 20th century, which threatens to discard Ukrainian historiography to the standards of historiography at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Civic Longing: The Speculative Origins of U.S. Citizenship by Carrie Hyde

Reviewed by: Civic Longing: The Speculative Origins of U.S. Citizenship by Carrie Hyde Brian Alberts (bio) Civic Longing: The Speculative Origins of U.S. Citizenship. By Carrie Hyde. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018. Pp. 320. $46.50 cloth) Professor Carrie Hyde tackles the fascinating and nebulous question of early American citizenship with her recent book, Civic Longing: the Speculative Origins of U.S. Citizenship. Between 1776 and 1868, no central legal precept specified what constituted a citizen of the United States, leaving disparate groups—particularly marginalized populations—to argue not just the conceptual boundaries of citizenship but also the very parameters governing its definition. Through case studies and in-depth textual criticism, Civic Longing explores how literary and imaginative works influenced an ostensibly legal concept to not only help define the traits and allegiances of a citizen, but also negotiate them. Naturally, Hyde’s first chapter is an overview of the legal evolution of citizenship that culminated in the Fourteenth Amendment’s emphasis on territory (as opposed to birth in the case of slavery), enumerated constitutional rights, and voluntary status. In doing so, she emphasizes the ambiguities, assumptions, and choices that gave “ample interpretive leeway” to such a construction and spends the remainder of the book inserting the necessary extralegal, interpretive, and uneven considerations that helped fill the interim legal void (p. 29). In doing so, Hyde argues [End Page 219] not only for greater inclusion of literary sources in historical analysis but also the complication of a historiography that has typically treated citizenship as a clearer concept than it actually was. Her arguments consist of three parts: first, that any analysis of “citizenship’s emergence” in the United States must include extralegal perspectives, if only because many of those conceiving of and idealizing citizenship were themselves legally marginalized; second, that citizenship’s definition depended on the active theorization that took place within fictional and imaginative writing genres; third, that a lack of legal definitions did not stop Americans from sustaining images of citizenship, especially by the “‘negative civic exemplars’— expatriates, slaves, traitors, and alienated subjects” imagining or living it from outside perspectives (pp. 9–10). Indeed, she points out how these groups gave particular import to the question. Chapter two examines the contributions of Christian theology to American citizenship, using works by Harriet Beecher Stowe to demonstrate that notions of heavenly citizenship, even those emphasizing estrangement from worldly political affiliations, were ultimately linked to debates over secular political membership. Chapter three uses Daniel Webster’s and Frederick Douglass’ competing interpretations of the 1841 slave revolt aboard the Creole to examine ideas of natural law, arguing that as in Christian theology, explications of higher law were in effect circular—they attempted to break out of the trappings of political systems in order to seek change within those systems. Chapter four examines the intentional fictionality of romance literature, specifically works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, to show its reformist power as an apparently neutral (though hardly apolitical) commentary on political allegiances. Finally, chapter five discusses how the various extralegal discourses mentioned earlier coalesced during the Civil War to create a “newly secularized form of Christian nationalism,” with citizenship upheld as a “transcendent sacred ideal” (p. 156). In complicating the historiographical narratives surrounding early American citizenship and demonstrating the significance of [End Page 220] literary works as interpretive commentaries, Hyde is largely successful. Additional examples demonstrating the influence of these conceptual shifts in the wider application of citizenship around the United States, however, would have fully cemented the historical import Hyde assigns to her case studies. For example, her excellent breakdown of Frederick Douglass’ treatment of the Creole revolt, a specific event, would have benefitted from a stronger relation to the long-term trend of fugitive slaves escaping to Canada. Yet overall, Hyde’s work is a compelling look at a provocative conceptual realm. Brian Alberts BRIAN ALBERTS teaches history at Purdue University and researches mid-nineteenth century German immigration to the Midwest through the lens of the brewing industry. Copyright © 2020 Kentucky Historical Society

Applied Theatre Encounters at Canada’s National Holocaust Monument

The stark, slanting, raw concrete walls of Landscape of Loss, Memory and Survival, reveal the essential performativity of Canada’s new National Holocaust Monument (NHM). Designed by architect Daniel Libeskind and opened in Ottawa in September 2017, the unexpected angles of the monument’s towering walls form six triangular “volumes” that constitute a deconstructed and elongated Star of David. Belarie Zatzman frames the NHM’s architecture, itself, as the foundation for conceptualizing an applied theatre project as she speculates about what it might mean to respond to the Holocaust from the present, in a specifically Canadian context. She draws on Rothberg’s concept of multidirectional memory as an approach for gathering participants’ multiple narratives as well as multiple communities’ responses to the Shoah. For Zatzman, the promise and challenge of applied theatre lies in the possibility of interacting with history, beyond passively consuming historiographic narratives. Thus, the article asks, how might applied theatre processes help shape our encounter with history and memory at the NHM as a performative, participatory, and pedagogical practice?

Knossos and Heraklion in the Byzantine-Islamic transition (late 7th – mid-10th century) An archaeological perspective into shifting patterns of settlement ruralisation and urbanisation on medieval Crete

In January 2019, the colloquium entitled ‘The Medieval Countryside: An Archaeological Perspective’ was held in San Diego, gathering among some of the most prominent scholars working on the Medieval rural landscape across the Aegean and Anatolia. Recent projects of field-surveys and landscape archaeology focusing on these regions, in fact, have played a fundamental role in improving the understanding of rural settlement patterns and forms of habitation and land use during the Middle Ages. Discussion, moreover, has touched upon some academic flaws and obstacles to interdisciplinary approaches, especially emphasising the persisting marginal impact of these survey projects, and their rich datasets of material evidence, in existing historiographical narratives and sociocultural reconstructions of the Medieval countryside in these regions.

The Gosplan Automated Planning System as a Necessary Step Toward the Nationwide Automated Data Processing and Control System (NACS)

Introduction. Given the ongoing digitalization of public administration, the Soviet experience in introducing computer-aided planning warrants more research with regard to overcoming departmentalism in creating supra-institutional (national) information systems. Based on the Russian State Archive of the Economy funds, interviews with the planners and Soviet economics literature, this paper examines the reasons behind the creation of the Automated Planning System which was meant to serve as a necessary intermediate step toward the National Information System (NACS). Materials and Methods. Through the lens of the institutional economics and actor-network theory, this research explores the inter-institutional struggle for the right to supervise the creation of the new instrument for the national economic planning. Results. A vast body of Soviet literature on the Automated Planning System and the archival documents from the Russian State Archive of the Economy was compiled and analyzed alongside with the interviews conducted with the chairmen of the Main Computing Centre of the Gosplan (V. B. Bezrukov, V. V. Kossov, Y. M. Urinson) and its other employees. It enabled the author to reconstruct the history of the ASPR, describe its architecture (key blocks and functions) and trace the political struggles over the computerization of the nationwide planning system. Discussion and Conclusions. This research improves upon the historiographic narrative on the NACS as a completely unimplemented project and offers an explanatory model for the Gosplan tactics which proved most effective in the competition for the right to run the nationwide administration system. ASPR is regarded as an interim solution crucial for suppressing the bureaucratic opposition. As the Gosplan institutional system, it allowed for the exclusion of other institutions from the creation process while the conceptual shift from a single system to a unified one turned all the opponents aspiring to have their information systems into observers. At the later stage, when ASPR had been launched, the Gosplan used the obtained results to insist on linking up other systems to build the OGAS with the ASPR at its core.

A Configuração da Narrativa Historiográfica na Escrita de Eduardo Galeano

Neste artigo objetivamos demonstrar como Eduardo Galeano configura sua narrativa, adequando-a a exigências próprias da historiografia. Procedemos a uma análise formal e de conteúdo, investigando a maneira como o escritor uruguaio, em seu texto “La reconquista de Brasil”, da obra Memoria del fuego (2010), consegue atender a imperativos do fazer historiográfico, como a datação dos fatos, o registro documental, a crítica das fontes, os agentes históricos e a objetividade da linguagem. Os resultados da análise revelaram que Galeano compõe uma outra perspectiva narratológica para abordar o Golpe Militar de 1964, no Brasil. Nesse sentido, concluímos que a forma como Galeano compõe o seu texto pode ser vista como uma narrativa historiográfica que não se afasta da Teoria da Literatura, mas agrega sua metodologia.

O mundo não é dos espertos

Este artigo é um exercício de narrativa historiográfica pessoal. Parto de minha trajetória como pesquisadora da escravidão e historiadora pública para explorar as conexões entre a historiografia contemporânea da escravidão, as memórias de descendentes de africa-nos escravizados e as memórias de imigrantes judeus sobre o antissemitismo europeu do século XX. A partir do conceito de trauma cultural, a questão deste texto é: como lidar, pessoal e profissionalmente, com os passados sensíveis - traumáticos - brasileiros? Argumento que, a partir de minha vivência profissional, desenvolvi uma sensibilização não só em relação às injustiças históricas do nosso tempo, mas também àquelas relativas à minha história pessoal. E concluo que, se este tema vem sendo enfrentado, ainda que timidamente, pela sociedade brasileira, ele não pode ser ignorado pelos historiadores profissionais, justamente aqueles que, por dever de ofício, se dedicam a refletir sobre as conexões entre passado e presente.

The evolution of a church and religious role in the Ukrainian national and cultural Renaissance in the second half of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century: the modern historiography

The Ukrainian historiographical narrative of the religious and church place and role in the Ukrainian national and cultural Renaissance, and in the national liberation movement in the second half of the 19th and the first third of the 20th century is analyzed in the issue. The modern historians consider the ecclesiastical and religious factors of the Ukrainian Renaissance according to two levels. The first level reveals the history of religious thought, the representatives of which study the religious reflections of the prominent figures in culture, education, religion and literature, the second level conveys the history of the church life in Ukraine, the analysis of the church institutes’ role and place in the Ukrainian modern national and cultural Renaissance (the activity of UGCC, the Unification Council of the Eastern Orthodox Churches of Ukraine, the UAOC, etc.) is presented. A defined historiographical issue complies with the evolutional levels of a religious and ecclesiastical component in the modern spiritual, cultural, political and civil processes, namely the development of religious thought and institutional orientation of church and parish-based education in the second half of the 19th century contributed to the ecclesiastical and religious integration with the national democratic society and state establishment in the early 20th century. The scope of the church and religious activity on the Ukrainian lands had a moderate character in the second half of the 19th century compared to the first decades of the “long century”. The Ukrainian lands were divided politically as well as confessional that strengthened sacral indifference and “religious absenteeism”. The positive fact was that the modern historians had left politicization in the sacral and religious issues’ consideration which was a mainstream in the Soviet period. The scientists support a common thought that despite an institutional weakness of the church and religious life on the Ukrainian lands in the second half of the 19th century, the religion and faith were preserved as the essential features of the Ukrainian mentality, and as a result plays a crucial role in the Ukrainian cultural and spiritual development, put a base for the further governmental struggle. A final conclusion was drawn that the religious thought development, the prominent thinkers’ reflections about the Ukrainian Christianity and national church phenomena prepared the necessary conditions for the regularizing and further building of the Ukrainian church life in the beginning of the 20th century.

Being Soviet, Muslim, Modernist, and Fundamentalist in 1950s Central Asia

AbstractHow far, if at all, did the intellectual legacy of early 20th-century Muslim reformism inform the transformative process which Islam underwent in Soviet Central Asia, especially after WWII? Little has been done so far to analyze the output of Muslim scholars (ʿulamāʾ) operating under Soviet rule from the perspective of earlier Islamic intellectual traditions. The present essay addresses this problem and sheds light on manifestations of continuity among Islamic intellectual practices—mostly puritanical—from the period immediately before the October Revolution to the 1950s. Such a continuity, we argue, profoundly informed the activity of the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan (SADUM) established in Tashkent in 1943 and, more specifically, the latter’s attack against manifestations of religiosity deemed “popular,” which were connected to the cult of saints. Thus, this essay posits that the juristic output of Soviet ʻulamā’ in Central Asia originates from and further develops an Islamic reformist thinking, which manifested itself in the region in the late 19th- and early 20th-century. By establishing such an intellectual genealogy, we seek in this article to revise a historiographical narrative which has hitherto tended to decouple scripturalist sensibilities from Islamic reformism and modernism.

Mostrar por montaje: narraciones benjaminianas desde el archivo y la fotografía de prensa

From Walter Benjamin's montage method and the Didi-Huberman’s image dys-position, this article intends to promote a theoretical and methodological reflection when working with photo-press archives and newspaper libraries. A cartography articulated through photographic constellations that offers an approach to other ways of making historiographical narratives from the margins of the great stories of history.

A SUGGESTION ABOUT THE GENRE OR TEXT-TYPE OF MARK

The aim of this essay is to reformulate the identity of the genre of the Gospel of Mark as n proper interpretive model in the light of recent developments in literary theory and hermeneutics. In order to do so, a brief reception history of the gospel genre (as history; as kerygma, as narrative) is given and basic concepts of genre theory in relation to hermeneutics are discussed. Special attention is given to Fowler and Hirsh’s ideas on the process of generic formation and identification. In this light, the genre of the Gospel of Mark is identified as ‘narrative” (as broad genre) by taking the middle position between ‘sui generis and parallel genre (to have similarities with the first century Graeco –Roman literature). According to Scholes and Kellogg (1966:12), narrative here means a literary form as ‘an amalgamation of history, myth (kerygma) and fiction (narration)’. Especially if we apply appropriate mode concepts like history, kerygma, and drama to the broad genre of the Gospel as narrative the gospel genre can be identified as ‘realistic narrative’ or ‘historical or historiographical narrative (history mode); ‘kerygmatic or kerygmatized narrative’ (kerygma mode); dramatic or scenic narrative’ (drama mode). This generic perception exerts a dynamic influence on our reading experience on our reading experience by opening up many new possibilities in the interpretation of the Gospel of Mark.

POLITICISING CHERNOBYL: WALES AND NUCLEAR POWER DURING THE 1980s

ABSTRACTThe Chernobyl disaster of 1986 had international repercussions, as nuclear fallout, and accompanying fear, traversed well beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. In Britain, raised radioactivity levels caused some upland regions, such as north-west Wales, to become subject to restrictions on the sale of livestock, which created upheaval for the agricultural community, leading to an uncharacteristic outburst of protest from farmers who were unhappy with the government's response to the crisis. Concurrently, nuclear sceptics in Wales attempted to politicise the tragedy in the Ukraine to underline the dangers of nuclear power, dovetailing the accident with the looming perils of Wales's domestic nuclear industry. In exploring these issues, this paper contributes to a growing body of work on ‘British nuclear cultures’, moving away from its generally urban focus by examining a Welsh rural case study. This approach also circumvents the well-trodden historiographical narrative surrounding the politics of nuclear warfare by highlighting debates arising from civil nuclear power. Crucially, the work demonstrates how looking at the modern Welsh past through the prism of a transnational nuclear event such as the Chernobyl catastrophe shows that the history of twentieth-century Wales is enriched by moving beyond the stereotypically ‘Welsh’ industrial shibboleths of the south Wales coalfield and the slate mines of north Wales.

Domitianus Germanicus: Tacitus’sGermaniaand the Memory of Domitian

AbstractFor over fifteen years before the production of Tacitus’s Germania, the title Germanicus had been prominent in Rome, claimed not only by Domitian but also by both Nerva and Trajan. Tacitus famously refutes military success in his account. As this article shows, however, its memory is consistently invoked in its basic structure. Especially through allusions to Caesar, Tacitus introduces a model of historiographical narrative concerning Roman conquest, only to reject it. The result is a tension between the ongoing public presence of Rome’s immediate past and its official erasure, forming a commentary on the very process of imperial memory sanction.

Introduction: Debates on Experience and Empiricism in Nineteenth Century France

Introduction: Debates on Experience and Empiricism in Nineteenth Century France

Die Böhmischen Robotpatente von 1680 und der Rechtsschutz von Untertanen. Eine Edition der Dokumente

The present study seeks to provide documents concerning the legal status of serfs in Bohemia. It brings the first comprehensive edition of Robotpatente (i.e. peasant patents) for Bohemia and Moravia of 1680, and 1713, the instruction for the Prokurator (i.e. prosecuting attorney) and connected documents, which provided framework for the legal protection of serfs in Habsburg Bohemia. It will be followed in next years by editions of documents for further periods in the development of serfdom. The introductory historical study explains why it is important to return to studying the legal status of serfs, and how this approach differs from the research in peasant rebellions and class struggles. Since I try to build on the narrative of Bauernbefreiung I provide here also a detailed survey of the development of this historiographical narrative mode. The introduction also elucidates what the Robotpatente say about the legal status of serfs and the role of legal institutions before 1680. Since the role of statutory law in the Early Modern Age may not be overrated, this picture is completed by customary law. Our analysis draws on the legal disputes between the landlord and the serfs as individuals and serfs in village communities. We prove that the Leibeigenschaft (serfdom) was connected with limitations of personal freedom. The scope of these limits had been known already before 1680. The edition of documents presents the two peasant patents of 1680 for Bohemia, but also a collection of documents concerning the publication of the patents. It brings also an unknown 'second Robotpatent' of 1681 and the version in which the Robotpatent of 1680 was implemented in Moravia in 1713.

How to handle economic power? Law-making and the Reich economic council in Weimar Germany

ABSTRACTThe paper analyzes the role of the Reich Economic Council (Reichswirtschaftsrat, RWR) in Weimar Germany and intends to highlight its ambiguous position between organized interests, political loyalties, public expectations and economic needs. In contrast to the prevailing historiographical narrative of the RWR’s insignificance, the paper argues for a closer look at its practice in economic policy to gain deeper insight into its role within the political system.Referring to the heated public debates on consumer policy and cartels in the late 1920s, the findings indicate that the RWR formed a platform for economic actors at the intersection of state and economy to influence or even pre-formulate economic policy within the protected sphere of an institutionalized 'back-room', and beyond party politics. But on the other hand, the refusal of taking sides in political controversies may have triggered the RWR's successive marginalization in the early 1930s.Thus, the RWR’s ambiguous position mirrors the contested and undecided nature of economic order in the 1920s, and therefore allows us to see behind the curtain of the complex relations between economy, politics and state in Weimar Germany.

Imagining and mapping the end of an empire: Oskar Spate and the partition of India and Pakistan

In July 1947, the British government of India convened two boundary commissions for the purpose of partitioning the colony into two independent nation states: India and Pakistan. Despite the volume of scholarly work on partition, little attention has been paid to its geographies. This paper addresses this lacuna in two ways: first, by inserting a geographical account into wider historiographical narratives of partition through cartographic-visual analysis and the application of geographical literature. Second, by bringing some of the themes and theoretical contributions from literature on partition into a geographical framework by highlighting the ways in which technical geographical terminology and boundary making practices were used for the political purpose of claiming territory. The paper pursues both of these aims through a biographical approach, examining in detail the unexamined papers of the British geographer Oskar Spate and his minor yet revealing involvement in the Punjab Boundary Commission hearings of July 1947. The paper argues that a territorial divide was unable to resolve the tensions that lay at the heart of the process of partition. This was not simply because geographical expertise was disregarded, but because geographical knowledge and analysis could not provide an adequate solution to the problem of overlapping yet ideologically distinct imagined territorial homelands. The paper thus points to the varied and ambiguous role that maps and mapping played in post-war sites and projects of decolonisation.

Influences, identity and historiography in Colombia: the reception of Brazilian modernism (1940s–1960s)

The reception of Brazilian architectural modernism in Colombia has been dismissed and underestimated by national historiography. This article aims to provide a first overview of the rich system of transnational relations between Colombia and Brazil. Moving from the first acknowledgments of Brazilian architectural production in Colombia — in which triangulations with the USA played an important role, not least after the Brazil Builds exhibition catalogue reached an international audience — this article displays a varied system of transference routes that made Brazilian-Cariocan modernism one of the main references for Colombian architects during the 1950s. This text examines recognised seminal events and lesser-known facts, highlighting the existence of a wide system of connections. It analyses the reception of the work of Niemeyer and other architects in Colombian magazines and underlines the movements of Colombian architects toward Brazil. It finally recollects a varied group of projects from the 1950s that evidence the diffusion of Brazilian-Cariocan repertories in Colombia among professionals and students. The article highlights how the reception of Brazilian modernism in Colombia should be read as the result of local cases within the global process of modernism’s ‘tropicalisation’. By doing so, it also discusses the reasons that pushed this process to the margins of the mainstream historiographic narrative.