Ideological Demands Research Articles

From text to allegory: ideological turns in Shamel Abatha’s translation of Animal Farm in the socio-political context of Egypt’s Pre-Arab Spring

ABSTRACT The influence of ideology on the process of translation has been one of the most controversial debates among scholars and translators who may undergo multiple challenges due to certain ideological demands, whether they be political, cultural or religious. In the Arab world, the socio-political scene has been dominated by ideological shifts since the outbreak of the Arab Spring. These shifts have influenced Arab scholars and translators in many possible ways, one of which is the reproduction of incisive narratives that not only account for the causes and effects of revolutions that swept different regions in the Arab world but also provoke political reform. In this vein, this article investigates Shamel Abatha’s translation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) to Arabic. It specifically explores Abatha’s political orientations which result in daring textual manipulations of Orwell’s text before the Arab Spring in Egypt in 2011. Following Mona Baker’s narrative theory, the article demonstrates how Abatha’s target text turns into a socio-political national allegory that embodies critical ideological implications. The corpus consists of selected comparisons between Orwell’s Animal Farm and Abatha’s مزرعة الحيوانات [mazraat alḥywānāt] (2009) to show how translation strategies expound the impact of the latter’s political environment on his translation.

The main directions of the study of federalism in the Russian legal science of the 1920s

The subject of the study is the theory of federalism in the Russian legal science of the 1920s. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the theories of federalism of the 1920s based on the study of a wide array of publications of this period. The research methodology includes the following methods. The chronological method allowed us to distribute legal facts and their interpretations in chronological order. The comparative legal method was used to compare legal phenomena and institutions of different periods. The method of hermeneutics was used in the interpretation of texts.The following scientific results were obtained.The 1920s were a special period in Russian legal science. The ideological demands of the Soviet government formulated an urgent scientific agenda. At the same time, the political regime of this period allowed for relative freedom of scientific activity. The discreteness and continuity in the study of the problems of federalism are noted. In Soviet conditions, the federal theme was of particular relevance because of its practical significance. The development of the theory of federalism was carried out simultaneously with the approval of the Soviet federal state, the legal consolidation of relations between its subjects. The organizational center for the study of the theory and practice of federalism was located in the system of academic scientific institutions.The problems of federalism in the legal perspective were studied within the framework of state law. In addition, they were part of the subject of a new complex industry, which became known as "Soviet construction".Publications of the 1920s reflected the interdisciplinarity of research interpretations. In the comparative legal aspect, the theory of federalism and types of federations were studied. In the political aspect, the features of the Soviet federation, its differences from the federations of the bourgeois type were studied. The practice of Soviet construction was analyzed and generalized from a practical perspective. The key research issue of the 1920s was to determine the legal nature of the Soviet Federation. Definitions of the legal nature of the RSFSR and the USSR were given. An important conclusion was made about the continuity and continuity of the forms of the Soviet federation. Many questions remained debatable. Clarity was not achieved on the following issues: on the composition of the subjects of the RSFSR; on the combination of national and state sovereignty. For the first time, the question of the place and role of the historical Russian center within the USSR was raised. During the period of the 1920s, priorities in the study of the problems of federalism changed. At the beginning of the period, the main attention was paid to the study of the federation as an effective way to solve the national issue. The federal structure was considered a transitional form of the Soviet state. A state built on the principles of proletarian internationalism was declared promising. At the end of the 1920s, the concept of a large unified state was most actively developed. It was proved that within the framework of the USSR, national demands are satisfied and the interests of all nations are respected.

Warfare with Songbooks

In this “Stop on Archives”, the author writes about songbooks that were published during World War II on the territory of Yugoslavia. These publications are discussed as an entry point into everyday experience of the communist-led antifascist resistance. Namely, in spite of the raging war and shortages of everything from food and clothes to arms and ammunition, materials that would facilitate leisure-related activities were in high demand. The songbooks, therefore, shed light on the existence of widespread enthusiasm for cultural activities during the war. They provided the opportunity for replacing fear and pain at least temporarily with shared enjoyment and fun. But also, because the content of the songs was adapted to the wartime circumstances and guided by the demands of politics and ideology, shared fun could include the sensation of hope in the better future as well.

From the Soviet Folksong Research: Between Free Choice and Obligation

The history of the Soviet folkloristics has been underresearched until now. Usually, attention in centered only on the main directions and results of the works carried out during that period. In these folksong studies, these include creating classification system for folksong genres, as well as editing and publishing so-called fundamental sources of folklore – the multivolume collection of the “Book of Lithuanian Folk Songs”. So far, the generation of the Soviet-period folklorists or research activities of its representatives, especially the options and alternatives that were available to them, have hardly been discussed, if at all. The 100th anniversary of Pranė Jokimaitienė, which was celebrated last year, encouraged to take a look at her folklore studies precisely in the context of the Soviet ideological demands, which were relevant to this sphere of research. However, her case is rather exceptional, since the biography of this scholar, who grew up during the interwar period in the independent Lithuania, was for various reasons completely inappropriate to the Soviet regime. Therefore, a fresh look at the folklore studies by P. Jokimaitienė written during the Soviet-period, and observations in the field of possible ideological tensions that can be discerned in them enables to identify a very strong person who, while moderately using the “inner censor” tool that was common in the public discourse, at the same time managed to resist any moral compromises.
 The interpretation of research works by P. Jokimaitienė proposed in the article allows us to draw a conclusion that, while following the unified Soviet program for folklore research, she never did anything superficially – both investigating the folksong composition as a social or artistic discourse and writing popular texts on folklore. Most of her arguments are well documented and constructive, while her notion of folksongs is based on philological assumptions and still relevant to the Lithuanian folkloristics today.

Gender in the dock

It happens sometimes that culture or the tradition to which we belong weighs heavy on our shoulders, and distresses us to an extent that we lose all sense of morals and drift into decadence. In reference to literature, moral decadence designates a corrosive process or situation of deterioration and decline in society’s ethical codes and sexual morality. In her perspective to dismantle the patriarchal culture, Amma Darko exposes the moral decline to which her society is prey and points an accusing finger at the gender-oriented system. The purpose of this article is to examine how gender and the standards that go with it can influence social depravity and the mounting loss of moral values among individuals. Stressing the writer’s objectivity and her catharsis-based approach as therapy, this analysis of Amma Darko’s Faceless and Not Without Flowers allows to have an off-screen look at the hideous consequences of gender prejudice. As they want or fail to meet the demands of the sexist ideology, both male and female, central and secondary characters are revealed to find solace in illicit deeds and amorality.

Gastronomic Culture as an Object of Cultural Heritage: Problems of Expert Assessment

Based on the methodology of social constructivism, the paper analyzes the specifics of food as an object of intangible cultural heritage. Summarizing the studies of European historians, the author characterizes the main factors in classifying artifacts of gastronomic culture as objects of intangible cultural heritage, paying particular attention to the factors of terroir, tradition, and identity preservation. From the point of view of the practice of expertise, the patrimonization of artifacts is built on the intersection of empirical historical data and the current ideological demand. The revealed regularities and problems are specified on the case of the Russian gastronomic culture. The author concludes that one of the essential problems of expert evaluation of gastronomic culture in Russia is the lack of gastronomic reflection, that is, a stable tradition of restaurant criticism and authoritative cookbooks. Another obstacle to the development of cultural heritage expertise is the coexistence of several conflicting images of the past in contemporary Russian culture.

The Fame of Trajan: A Late Antique Invention

SummaryTrajan’s status as a model emperor is perhaps most famously expressed in Eutropius’ catchphrase “More fortunate than Augustus, better than Trajan” (Eutr. Brev. 8.5.3). Modern scholarship has similarly stressed Trajan’s exemplary status, assuming that Trajan’s virtues were already a point of departure by which to measure second- and third-century emperors. This article challenges that notion; it argues that Trajan’s status as a model emperor was a late-antique literary construct. Trajan only entered the repertoire of exemplary emperors during the course of the fourth century to become the model emperor in the very late-fourth- and early-fifth century. This development depended on the historical context and ideological demands, as well as on the availability of the then-existing material discussing and depicting the historical Trajan.

Traversing the fantasy of drugs: drugs, consumerism and everyday life

Drug use is a transient rather than a fixed range of practices. Drug markets are constantly evolving as substances, both old and new, move in and out of fashion. If we are to understand this process of evolution, it must be placed against a background of consumer capitalism. Building on the author’s previous work, this article seeks to move beyond existing theories to examine the nexus of drug use, pleasure and consumerism. This article draws upon a Žižekien account of the unconscious and the ontology of desire. Drawing on ultra-realism this article responds to the call for new theories of drug use to replace the old and outdated theories of the sixties and seventies. Beginning with the claim that we cannot properly grasp ‘real-life developments’ unless we examine ‘the self-propelling metaphysical dance of Capital that runs the show’ this article positions drug use in relation to the key ideological demands of neoliberalism and its subjectivities, including its damaged subjectivities.

Explaining Antithetical Movements to the Black Lives Matter Movement Based on Relative Deprivation Theory

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has galvanized citizens of all races, ethnicities, genders and ideologies in a common cause to protest racism. Its central focus is protesting continued racism against African Americans, but it has spurred a broader ideological demand for equality for all Americans. The movement does not seek Black dominance, but equal treatment in the justice system and general society. In opposition to this movement are antithetical movements supporting the continuation of the historical dominance of White males in government, private sector leadership roles, and in the general societal hierarchical perspective of superiority and dominance. This opposition is fueled by fear of a country that has evolved into a blend of races and genders embracing the “uniqueness of the other” rather than disdain for the perceived threat from the non-majority. For some, this perceived threat is substantiated through the capitulation of government leaders and radical groups that aggressively recruit members by feeding on fearful perceptions of a country in evolution where Whites are no longer in the majority. The focus of this essay is an exploration of subtle and not so obvious factors contributing to continued antithetical movements combating the ideology of the BLM movement. The “fear” driving these movements are tied to relative deprivation theory, although this article argues these antithetical movements are based on perceived rather than real causes of deprivation and that they are driven by those who seek to take advantage of them.

A Thorn in Imperial Japan's Side: The Shifting Politics of Protestant Christianity in Colonial Korea

Historians have highlighted the deep connection between imperial ideologies and Christian evangelism that undergirded Western colonialism. This intimate relationship between church and state was far more complicated in colonial Korea because Japan maintained non‐Christian religious traditions, yet Japanese colonial authorities still needed the collaboration of Korean Protestant communities to meet the material and ideological demands of Japan's imperial enterprise. This article examines how Western missionaries and Korean evangelicals engaged with colonial rule — that engagement reflected the fluid nature of religious culture in colonial Korea and changed as imperial Japan faced internal and external challenges. Initially, many Protestant churches remained politically neutral to appease the Japanese regime but some supported anti‐Japanese activities, prompting the Government‐General of Korea (GGK) to try to prevent Protestant churches from becoming loci for rebellion against its rule. The GGK switched from “military rule” to a less harsh “cultural rule” in the 1920s, which motivated Protestants to adopt an uneasy coexistence with colonial authorities. In the 1930s–1940s, the GGK hardened its stance on religion and insisted on peninsula‐wide observance of State Shintō; some Protestants acquiesced to the authorities, but others bravely refused to worship Shintō deities, a ritual that contravened Christian strictures against idolatry.

The Origins of the Byliny: a Working Hypothesis

The oral heroic poems found in the Northern province of Olonets in the late nineteenth century, usually known as byliny, present a unique case of oral preservation of medieval literature within European context. For decades, due to the lack of manuscript copies of those texts, theories about their origin have been highly conjectural and subject to many ideological demands. While any definitive conclusion on their authorship, place and time of composition has to remain necessarily speculative, the present article, analysing the internal evidence of the poems and what can be concluded from studies on orality in other literary traditions, proposes that they were originally composed in written form in a clerical environment in the Northern area of Kyivan Rus’.

The Motif of the Angel(s) of Death in Islamic Foundational Sources as an Element of Cultural Diffusion

The article harks back to the publication entitled “The Motif of the Angel(s) of Death in Islamic Foundational Sources” (VV 38/2 [2020]), which was devoted to the analysis of the eponymous theme in the foundational sources of Islam: the Quran and the sunna of the Prophet Muhammad. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the motif of angel(s) may have been borrowed from two monotheistic traditions that came before. The verification of the thesis that the motif of the angel(s) of death underwent diffusion was carried out in several steps. First, the motif was identified in the textual traditions of Judaism and early Christianity (i.e. sets of texts that were known and, in all likelihood, widespread in the Middle East during the formative period of Islam). As a result of the analysis, most of the themes recognised in the foundational texts of Islam were found. The next step was to identify possible routes of their transmission and percolation into the Islamic tradition and to determine the “ideological demand” for the motif of the angel(s) of death in the burgeoning Islam. Although Jewish and Christian imagery and beliefs about angels are an important (if not the primary) source of influence on Muslim angelology, there was most likely a two-way interaction between the monotheistic traditions, albeit to a limited extent.

Russian Classics in the USA Transcultural Canon

The issue of the canon (the most studied and taught classics) is one of the most important in the world literature system. The paper briefly outlines the formation of the USA literary canon since the middle of the 19th century and details the formation of the Russian segment in the transcultural canon since the late 20th century. In the history of the USA canon formation, the institutional or sociological model (Jonathan Culler, Stanley Fish, Paul Lauter), which argues that social institutions respond to ideological demands, and the aesthetic model embodied by Harold Blooms Shakespeare-centered Western Canon stand out. An up-to-date approach to the canon assumes taking both models into account, as well as the perception of the canon as cultural memory. Anthologies are most important sources of documenting the canon. For the 20th century American literature researchers distinguish three phases formed by the leading literary trends: historiographic (1919-1946), new critical (1947-1967) and multicultural (1967- present). Based on the analysis of Norton and Longman anthologies, as well as a popular textbook The Bedford Introduction to Literature since the late 20th century to the present, the paper highlights the Russian core in the USA transcultural canon, which became the source of creative reinterpretation in contemporary literature. The present research is to be continued through the study of the Russian literature canon in specialized editions to outline a comprehensive history of the Russian-American cultural transfer.

Варианты редизайна политической системы в России: опыт эмпирического исследования

The paper is devoted to the study of the current state and prospects of reformatting the party-political system of Russia in the interests of society development. The paper’s stipulations are based on the generalization of the results of a large-scale sociological study, combining the methods of desk research, focus groups, interviews with experts, and private sessions with experts. The authors analyse the ideological foundations of the Russian party-political system, its perception by voters, and the parties’ functional efficiency as potential expression of the macro-social groups’ interests and values. The paper studies ideological demands of the electorate in relation to political parties. The authors provide a characteristic of the actors of the Russian political system and suggest options of party space design.

The plight of China’s journalism education - From the perspective of the sociology of education

China’s journalism education has been changing all the time to meet new demands brought by the political and economic reforms over the last two decades in the 21st century. However, the covert wars between ideology and practice, between classrooms and newsrooms have caused the “split personality” and general confusion among China’s journalism educators and students. Several educational and practical problems thus arise as a result of the tug-of-war between economic and ideological demands. The problems of China’s journalism education are not only from its complex social and economic environments, but also from its weight of history and culture. Although both journalism educators and some media organizations in China are making great effort to heighten awareness of problems and actively attempting to take remedial measures, the transition from the classroom to the newsroom is made more difficult by the complicatedness of the business operation of schools and media organizations, and the systematicity of journalism education remains problematic.

“Moskva‐Berlin, Berlin‐Moskau, 1900–1950”: Memory and Forgetting

This article reconstructs and reexamines the dramatic events leading up to the “Moscow‐Berlin, 1900–1950” exhibition, jointly staged by the Berlinische Galerei and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in 1995–96. Modeled upon the landmark “Moscow‐Paris” exhibit that had taken place at the Pompidou Center in 1979 and the Pushkin Museum in 1981, “Moscow‐Berlin” has been largely forgotten by time, despite the fact that it, too, was intially viewed as a blockbusters event. Beyond changing professional and cultural conventions, a series of underlying factors help to explain the contrasting reactions to the two exhibits: international politics and the art market, passing trends, and media discourses. By the time “Moscow‐Berlin” opened, interest in the Russian avant‐garde had faded, while interest in 1930s art and culture was on the rise, fueled not by commercial but by an ideological demand to reconceptualize the canon for writing history and art history. Additionally, “Moscow‐Berlin” was conceived of as a political event, not only vis à vis the art on display, but its very location: West Berlin. But during the early stages of planning and preparation, however, both the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic disappeared from the map: this solved some thorny political issues surrounding the exhibit, but it created myriad other problems. At first, German politicians hoped the exhibit would facilitate the return of trophy art taken from Germany at the end of the Second World War. When reality dispelled this illusion, the German press launched an extended campaign against the exhibitions, which would later impact how it was remembered. Meantime, of course, when the exhibit arrived in Moscow it opened in a city in the throes of socioeconomic unrest and a contentious presidential election. The display of Stalinist art in all its radiant glory sparked in some viewers nostalgia for the Soviet past, and partially suppressed the question of whether shame should accompany the art of Stalinism. Collective memory hoped instead to glide over the more painful chapters of the recent past.

Family history and memory in photo albums of Latvian women after World War II

ABSTRACT The article analyses family history and memory in the post-WWII period, as reflected in photo albums compiled by women living in what had become the Soviet-occupied country of Latvia. The content analysis method is used to examine twenty photo albums. The results indicate that such albums served as an autobiographical instrument for women in the private sphere of everyday life. The principal thematic categories of photographs in the albums were everyday scenes, portraits of individuals, photos of infants and children, pictures of family rituals, portraits of young men performing their obligatory military service in the Soviet armed forces, group photos of families, and groups photos of festive family events. Generally, the women compilers of the albums sought to place photographs in chronological sequence, but interruptions of a sequence are visible by the inclusion of photographs from the pre-Soviet decades. Most of the albums are incomplete and contain many unmounted photos, which testifies to autobiographical instability and the need for editing to make albums conform to the ideological demands of the Soviet decades. Interpretation of the albums from the post-memory viewpoint suggests the necessity for contextual historical information, since their female compilers were evidently creating their own mythology about these post-war decades. The albums portray a society with strong family values, orderly networks of family relationships, mutual trust, prosperity, and ‘the good life’ – all of which stood in sharp contrast with the everyday realities of Soviet-era existence.

Feminisme Dakwah Perempuan Dalam Film Habibie & Ainun 3

Feminism is suspected of being a women’s rebellious movement to deny the nature of being a woman and as a driving force to obtain women rights. Feminist ideology demands gender injustice. In preaching, men dominate the spread of Islam than women. Although the implementation of da’wah is predominantly male, there are also many da'iyah in Indonesia, one of which is Ainun. Gender differences do not make Ainun despair in achieving her dream as a doctor. So that this becomes unique to examine. This research uses qualitative methods with a feminist approach. The result of this study was the determine Ainun da’wah massage in the movie Habibie & Ainun 3, as well as the problems of Ainun as a da’iyah in Indonesia. Ainun can be used as an aspiration and role model for Indonesian people in education, concern, and desire to realize their dreams.

Chosŏn’s Office of Interpreters: The Apt Response and the Knowledge Culture of Diplomacy

From 1392 until its dissolution in 1894, Chosŏn Korea’s Office of Interpreters managed diplomatic relations with its vastly more powerful Ming and Qing neighbors. The Office was originally conceived out of a bureaucratic strategy to formalize the training of its interpreters and manage the volatile knowledge they possessed. This bureaucratizing of diplomacy created a distinct socio-economic niche for these interpreters, facilitating their social reproduction. This article argues that a distinct culture of knowledge also emerged in this process. Beyond language, interpreters also translated between multiple domains of knowledge. As experts of diplomatic protocol, they served as informants to their social and administrative superiors. As scholars, they produced compendia and handbooks that made their office legible to outsiders. As specialists, they asserted the dignity of their craft. And as diplomats, they were tasked with furnishing the “apt response” that enabled them to move between local exigency and the demands of state ideology. Herein lies the central dilemma of bureaucratic knowledge: the skill to do so required both cultivated erudition as well as accumulated experience, but its timely execution could not be legislated through bureaucratic rules—a tension between the desire to control and the need to preserve agency. The article deliberately locates bureaucracy in a domain (diplomacy), place (East Asia), and a time (premodern) that was not supposed to “have” bureaucracy in order to dispute the casual conflation of bureaucratization with modernization that has obscured the Korean Office of Interpreters in the global history of diplomacy. This article is part of a special issue entitled “Histories of Bureaucratic Knowledge,” edited by Sebastian Felten and Christine von Oertzen.

Effects of Kibbutz communal upbringing in adulthood: trait emotional intelligence and attachment patterns

Past research regarding the emotional characteristics of kibbutz children raised with communal sleeping arrangements (CSA) showed inconsistent findings for emotional difficulties, such as insecure attachment and lowered ability for intimacy. Only little research has examined these children's emotional characteristics in their adulthood. Trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) is a new concept measuring a constellation of correlated emotional traits that capture a person's typical way of processing emotional information and reacting to it.The present study examined if difficulties in intimacy and trait EI characterize adults who had been raised in CSA kibbutzim (Hebrew plural of kibbutz). Participants comprised 1185 adults, aged 30–79, of whom 735 were raised in CSA kibbutzim, and the rest did not grow up in a Kibbutz at all. The participants completed three self-report questionnaires: Schutte's Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) to measure trait EI; the Revised Adult Attachment Scale to measure adult attachment; and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Questionnaire to measure self-esteem.Results showed that most of the kibbutz CSA participants revealed levels of intimacy and trait EI comparable to the non-kibbutz group. However, a significant difference was found among adults with low self-esteem and poor attachment quality: For these participants, trait EI and intimacy were significantly lower for the CSA kibbutz group than for the non-kibbutz group. Furthermore, the CSA kibbutz group reported poorer non-verbal communication skills than the non-kibbutz group.We suggest that a minority of the CSA kibbutz children were less resilient to the kibbutz ecology. These children might have been more vulnerable to the effects of limited social options, decreased parental support, and the kibbutz education's ideological demands. For these children, the effects of communal upbringing on intimacy and attachment appear to be long-lasting, extending throughout their adulthood.