Imaginative Reconstruction Research Articles

Tracing Dissent: A Study of Simulated Gendered Memories in V. V. Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night

This article critically examines the interplay of memory, gender, and political consciousness in V. V. Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War in the 1980s. Focusing on the protagonist, Sashi, the study employs theories of memory and gender studies to illuminate how her gendered memories contribute to the formation of political consciousness during the conflict. Sashi’s gendered memories emerge as a crucial lens through which the traumatic events of the war are remembered. By navigating the complexity of war, Sashi’s memories function as a form of dissent against dominant narratives, carving out a representation of subversive forms of memory often marginalized in such turbulent conditions. The concept of “simulated memories” by Kourken Michaelian can be used to analyze the narrative, wherein Sashi reconstructs major historical events she did not directly witness. This act of imaginative reconstruction, combined with the violence she has witnessed, forms a cogent narrative that transforms readers into secondary witnesses of the war. By engaging with theoretical frameworks of memory and gender studies, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricate dynamics between personal memory, gendered experiences, and the political landscape in times of conflict.

Broadening the “Problem-Space” of Political Theory

Pineda's book is an original and imaginative reconstruction of activist strategy and political theory, upending the orthodox account of civil disobedience during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Against liberal and democratic theorists who domesticate civil disobedience in the United States, with the aim of legitimizing the nation's constitutional democracy as “nearly just,” or in need of reform rather than revolution, Pineda argues that civil rights activists “theorized and deployed” civil disobedience as “decolonizing praxis” (16). She traces the decades-long history in which Black activists in the United States crafted their strategy of civil disobedience through embodied spaces, relationships, and practices of “imaginative transit” with revolutionaries in India, South Africa, and Ghana. These networks of transit enabled activists to diagnose segregation and colonialism as sites of a “shared, global condition” (59) of white supremacy, “operating with a common, reinforcing logic” of economic, political, and psychological domination (89). As a decolonizing praxis, civil disobedience combined an “inward-facing politics” of self-emancipation with an “outward-facing politics” (16) of disruption and disclosure—aimed not at reforming aberrations in constitutional democracy, but at “transforming the psychological, structural, and relational bases of white supremacy” (59).

Peradapan Islam Pada Masa Abu Bakar Ash-Shiddiq

This article discusses the caliph Abu Bakr ash Siddiq as the first caliph of Muslims after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Before being led by the Caliph, Muslims were led by an Apostle, the messenger of Allah, named Prophet Muhammad SAW. Before the prophet was born in Arabia had diverse beliefs and could be said to be the Age of Jahiliyah. After the Prophet Muhammad was born again, the life of the Arab occupation began to change according to the teachings of the Qur'an. After the death of the new prophet Muhammad called the leadership period of the Khulafa ar Rasyidun period, where the first khalifa named Abu Bakr Ash Siddiq who was born in 573 AD and died on 23 Jumadil Akhir 13H/634M. he was a friend of the prophet, during his reign many Arabs returned to their previous religion (apostasy) and many who claimed to be prophets did not pay zakat. caliph Abu Bakr Ash Shiddiq consulted with the leaders of the Muhajirin and Ansar about their departure to the north. At the time of the ashes, education was also very important. This article uses historical (historical) research methods to search, collect, prove, interpret, and present the results of an imaginative reconstruction of the past according to its traces.

Precarious Migrancy, Community, and Resilience in Debendranath Acharya’s <i>Jangam </i>

Literary narrative provides a new perspective of looking at the historical past, often questioning the credibility of representation. Interrogating what Hayden White calls history’s tropic prefiguration, the prominence given to key historical figures, the erasure of subaltern individuals or communities, literature foregrounds the role of narrative in constructing the way one understands the world, meaning, and truth. A postcolonial writer, in their critical re-interpretation of the historical archive, creates a hybrid text that combines historical evidences and imaginative reconstructions, and historical as well as invented characters. With this interplay, history is stripped of its objective quality. This article seeks to explore how Debendranath Acharya’s Jangam presents the precarious condition of the migrant Burmese Indian peasants during World War II and the manner in which they establish a community during their historically forgotten long march to Assam. What Acharya attempts to reconcile in Jangam are the “analytical” histories through utilising the rational categories of modern historical thought and the “affective” histories which account for the plural ways of being-in-the-world.

Creating Cromwell: an analysis of the historical novel’s position and potentiality through a study of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy

ABSTRACT This article considers the role historical novels can play in representing the past, and to what extent (and how) such fiction can both challenge and enhance historiography. Focusing on Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, it looks at how a novelist can use literary techniques, imaginative reconstruction of gaps in the historical record, and alternative interpretation of existing historiography (including primary sources) to radically alter our perception of the past; and indeed whether as a genre it may be able to do so more effectively than traditional (academic) historiography. In doing so, it traces the development of critical theory on the historical novel from Georg Lukács through postmodern critics such as Hayden White and Linda Hutcheon, to the recent work of Rosario Arias and Elodie Rousselot. Acknowledging the subjectivity and unreliability of ‘history’ (often presented as fact or ‘the past’) it argues for a blurring of the line between historiography and historical fiction, concluding that at least some historical novels should be granted admission to the field of historiography. The first steps towards this have been taken in the gradual acceptance of narrative history as subjective and just as incapable of ever truly representing the past as any other form of writing. It is to be hoped that there might be a similar acceptance of the historical novel’s ability to represent the past (albeit differently), to imaginatively reconstruct pasts that might have been. Rather than an inferior form, sharply delineated from ‘history’, might historical novels form a rich addition to a historiography considered as a spectrum rather than an exclusive and excluding discipline?

Lviv relived in exile: Józef Wittlin and Mόj Lwów [My Lwów

The Polish-Jewish novelist, poet and translator Józef Wittlin (1896–1976), author of the classic Sól ziemi (1935, English Salt of the Earth, 1939), lived in Lwów (until 1918 Lemberg, today Lviv) for about 20 years until 1922. Thereafter, whether in Poland or from 1939 in exile first in France, then the United States, he cherished his memories of this architecturally distinguished and multiethnic city, publishing his memoir Mόj Lwów [My Lwów] with an exile press in New York in 1946 (English translation 2016). The article draws on archival documents from Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States and other published sources to give a history of the book’s conception and reception, above all in the exiled Polish diaspora, and makes a case for Mόj Lwów’s enduring significance as a work of imaginative reconstruction written in exile.

Memories and Places in Twentieth-Century Suzhou Tanci

During China's Ming–Qing era, professional storytelling genres developed in economically and culturally advanced regions, alongside a mature book culture and major developments of theater genres. Since the eighteenth century, two Suzhoudialect-based storytelling genres emerged in the city of Suzhou and its neighboring area: tanci 彈詞 (plucking rhymes, chantefable) and pinghua 評話 (straight storytelling). Unlike pinghua's connection to time, that is, the history of different dynasties, the most popular tanci stories excel in presenting space: characters from many different tanci stories traverse a narrative universe that is based on spatial–temporal imagination of a constructed Jiangnan during the "Ming" Dynasty, often with Suzhou at its center. Therefore, tanci differs from many other performative genres and functions as a highly localized practice of collective memory: as an oral performative art, Suzhou tanci negotiates with both official history and plebian lore and legends; as a daily communal activity, it invites local audiences to practice imaginative reconstruction of Suzhou's past by embracing plots and characters in specific places that have specific spatial structures. Therefore, the charm of tanci lies not in the development of new stories but in resituating old local stories in the everchanging modern city to maintain a stable group identity for the locals.

The Magic of Forgery: Patterns of Distraction in the Authentication of Suspicious Objects

Abstract This article surveys and categorizes problematic arguments that recur in academic authentications of suspicious objects, especially biblically-related forgery cases (often arising from antiquities markets). Academic authenticators are often attracted to the “allure of significance” promised by unprovenanced objects purportedly related to biblical people or places. Authentication often displays a “cooption of creativity”: freely imaginative reconstructions of ancient origins are propped up by preclusions of the possibility of forgery. Combining these two moves into a third, authenticators spin inconsistencies to their advantage, arguing that what is unparalleled in the suspicious object provides evidence of new, important, unattested phenomena. Authenticators highlight the “drama of discovery,” even if the drama must be invented. Finally, authenticators slip into the language and legalities of crime-solving: if an alleged forger cannot be proven guilty, then the object should be considered authentic. Such arguments appear in failed authentications of the past, resurfacing in present controversies.

Perkembangan Sistem Pemasaran Makanan Tradisional Dakak-dakak Ni Nun Nagari Simabur Kecamatan Pariangan Kabupaten Tanah Datar Tahun 2000-2019

This research is a study of economic history that examines the development of traditional food marketing systems in the Dakak-dakak Ni Nun in Nagari Simabur, Pariangan District, Tanah Datar Regency from 2000-2019, the purpose of this study is to describe the beginning of the emergence of the traditional food industry in dakak-dakak Ni Nun, the development of the marketing system from 2000-2019 and obstacles encountered in using the marketing system used. In this study the method used is historical method, historical research method is the process of testing and analyzing critical history of recording and relics of the past. Imaginative reconstruction of the past based on data obtained by taking a historiographic process (historical writing). In the historiographic stage there are the first four steps are heuristics (data collection), the second is verification (source criticism), the third interpretation (interpretation) and the last historiography (historical writing). Nun where this can be seen from the increase in sales from year to year but in marketing the product there are also obstacles that are passed but Ni Nun can overcome them so that they can last until 2019.

Information and communication technology integration and teaching mathematics in higher education

The purpose of the study is to develop a model for the application of information and communication technology in the teaching of higher mathematics at the level of school education. The leading method for studying this issue is testing developed by V.E. Milman "Diagnostics of motivational structure of personality", which allows studying the level and features of motivational sphere of the researched based on characteristics of their personality with prevailing emotional background of interest, which are directly connected with motivational sphere and due to which it is possible to influence the level of motivation and mastering of the material on topics of higher mathematics based on given parameters of its increase. The identified indicators enable determining the success of using information and communication technologies within the framework of the created model improving the educational process of studying elements of higher mathematics at school. This will enable students to understand how the knowledge they are learning will be put into practice in their lives in the future, allowing them to be highly motivated in their approach to learning the subject, as well as within the framework of imaginative reconstructions of mathematical figures from different angles, graphs of various parameters, imaginative explanations of formulae, theorems and mathematical rules, which will be displayed in 3D on a large screen, thus enabling students, through their visualization, to understand their essence from different perspectives, which will be reinforced by their practical application.

Alain Locke, Imaginative Reconstruction, and the Condemnation of Stereotypes

Alain Locke, Imaginative Reconstruction, and the Condemnation of Stereotypes

Creating hope in dystopia: Utopia as Method as social pedagogy in early childhood studies

Those who choose to engage with the academic world of early childhood are frequently caught between encouraging students to advocate for children and contribute to the construction of a good life and navigating the regulatory frameworks that shape future practice. In short, we must prepare students for the highly skilled work of supporting people who live their lives in day-to-day actions that are underpaid, under-resourced and overlooked. Those who prepare students for this reality are tasked with developing programmes that both instil hope and pragmatism that will sustain them when faced with these everyday realities. This article outlines how the authors addressed this through an adapted use of Utopia as Method in a module on an early childhood degree. By following its distinct modes, students are guided to position themselves not as passive observants of a childhood that is socially constructed around them, but as social and political actors engaged with making human beings human. Among other issues the article evaluates the intersection between social pedagogy, utopia and the future of early childhood. Based on explorations undertaken for this article, we argue that the imaginative reconstruction of childhood through higher education is at ease with the values and purpose of social pedagogy. We reflect that, while the method employed as part of a module was useful in terms of personal development and future-oriented practice, the need to include children’s voices is yet to be developed.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PAST IN THE WORKS OF QURRATULAIN HYDER

Writers have always had a fascination for history and employ historical aspects in their works as well, knowingly or unknowingly. They attempt to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of their time. And Qurratulain Hyder is not an exception. The majority of her works deal with India and its history. All of Qurratulain Hyder's wonderful works addressed a collection of experiences with a small amount of heartfelt substance. She takes the content from the past and uses it in her novels with imaginative reconstruction. The present paper deals with the reconstruction of the past reflected in Qurratulain Hyder’s well-known works like River of Fire, Fireflies in the Mist, and My Temples too. This is a qualitative research work based on the content and textual analysis of selected novels of Hyder. The aim is to enquire into the ways how Hyder has incorporated the process by which she reconstructed or recreated history in her novels.

Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner

“Restoring” Charleston’s Dock Street Theatre

The imaginative reconstruction of the Dock Street Theatre, completed between 1935 and 1937 in Charleston, South Carolina, was a New Deal experiment in historic preservation. Funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and led by local architects Albert Simons and Samuel Lapham, the orchestrated re-creation of a lost eighteenth-century theater reflected the white elite’s desire to immortalize the city’s prosperous colonial and antebellum past in the historic built environment. While the project courted conservative interests and created a romanticized version of Old Charleston, the strong support of Democratic mayor Burnet Maybank and WPA director Harry L. Hopkins simultaneously pushed forward a progressive southern agenda. This dual and contradictory set of motivations culminated in an intriguing use of historic preservation to nurture a particular community’s sense of place and use historic buildings as a catalyst for cultural rebirth.

We Are Not All Alone Unhappy

“We Are Not All Alone Unhappy” is a short interactive narrative piece made in Twine which interrogates the idea of the Shakespearean happy ending. It asks players to create a pairing between two characters who received canonically unhappy endings in Shakespeare’s plays. I refer to it as a “Shakespearean sandbox” to convey the sense of plucking the characters from their particular textual grounding and placing them in an ambiguously modern world in which they can all interact. In doing so, it references the events of the plays; the characters still remember betrayal and murder, and have not (necessarily) forgiven those who wronged them. These characters carry their personalities and preoccupations into these meetings, and success or failure in a conversation is determined by (my judgment of) what might fulfill each character’s emotional arc. Failure text hints at what each character is looking for, and who might fulfill that; however, some hints are based upon my own imaginative reconstructions of events that do not happen in Shakespeare’s texts.

Tradisi Tepung Tawar: Integrasi Agama dan Kebudayaan pada Masyarakat Melayu di Sumatera Utara

This article discusses the tradition of fresh flour which is still practiced by ethnic Malays in North Sumatra in various traditional ceremonies that are considered sacred. In this article the author uses the historical method. The historical method according to Gottschalk (1986) is a process of critically examining and analyzing records of past relics. Imaginative reconstruction of the past based on data obtained by going through that process is called historiography. The results showed that this tradition of plain flour had been practiced and was influenced by beliefs before the arrival of Islam to the North Sumatra region. Fresh flour comes from the word tampung Tawar which means the activity of accepting bidders by being accommodated (to hold hands) as a form of receiving bidders (drugs) and has a magical function. This tradition is also a means of asking God for blessings and privileges, so that all good things are poured out for people who are offered flour and kept away from bad things in their lives. In addition, this tradition is also a symbol of integration between religion and culture, especially in the North Sumatra region.

Redefining Truths: Manuela Rosas as a subject of Imaginative Reconstruction in the Argentine Literary Realm

Manuela Rosas, the daughter of Federalist dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, is an important nineteenth century political figure who was a consistent subject of imaginative reconstruction during the Rosas era. Much like her fellow women revolutionaries, namely Eva Perón and her mother, Encarnación Ezcurra de Rosas, Manuela assumed an active role in the Argentine political arena and was instrumental maintaining her father’s unparalleled political supremacy, acting as chief mediator between the government and the marginalised Argentine masses. This article argues how, in a series of nineteenth-century fictional works, namely those of renowned Unitarians José Mármol (Amalia; El retrato de Manuela Rosas, 1851) and Juana Manuela Gorriti (El guante negro; La hiza del mashorquero, 1865), Manuela has been inaccurately depicted as ‘la primera victíma de la tiranía de su padre’ who desperately needed rescuing. Both writers maintain that Rosas curtailed his daughter’s social freedom, and that she would have reached her true potential had she been raised by civilised Unitarians and not in a Federalist environment. However, María Rosa Lojo’s La princesa federal (2010) contests the claim that Manuela suffered, instead postulating that she was a resilient and empowered individual who was passionate about promoting the causa federalista, remaining loyal to her father out of choice. I offer an original critical analysis of the unacknowledged and divergent literary and historical representations of Manuela, examining how writers use the lack of historical evidence to manipulate and imaginatively reconstruct her life story and in doing so, blur the line between fact and fiction.

Redefining Truths: Manuela Rosas as a subject of Imaginative Reconstruction in the Argentine Literary Realm

Manuela Rosas, the daughter of Federalist dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, is an important nineteenth century political figure who was a consistent subject of imaginative reconstruction during the Rosas era. Much like her fellow women revolutionaries, namely Eva Perón and her mother, Encarnación Ezcurra de Rosas, Manuela assumed an active role in the Argentine political arena and was instrumental maintaining her father’s unparalleled political supremacy, acting as chief mediator between the government and the marginalised Argentine masses. This article argues how, in a series of nineteenth-century fictional works, namely those of renowned Unitarians José Mármol (Amalia; El retrato de Manuela Rosas, 1851) and Juana Manuela Gorriti (El guante negro; La hiza del mashorquero, 1865), Manuela has been inaccurately depicted as ‘la primera victíma de la tiranía de su padre’ who desperately needed rescuing. Both writers maintain that Rosas curtailed his daughter’s social freedom, and that she would have reached her true potential had she been raised by civilised Unitarians and not in a Federalist environment. However, María Rosa Lojo’s La princesa federal (2010) contests the claim that Manuela suffered, instead postulating that she was a resilient and empowered individual who was passionate about promoting the causa federalista, remaining loyal to her father out of choice. I offer an original critical analysis of the unacknowledged and divergent literary and historical representations of Manuela, examining how writers use the lack of historical evidence to manipulate and imaginatively reconstruct her life story and in doing so, blur the line between fact and fiction

Minerva’s French Sisters: Women of Science in Enlightenment France

Minerva’s French Sisters pairs imaginative reconstruction with meticulous archival research in order to illuminate the lives of six women scientists of the Enlightenment. Practitioners of diverse STEM disciplines, from astronomy to mathematics to chemistry to anatomy, these women cannily navigated the homosocial worlds of Ancien régime science and found varying degrees of recognition and success ‘in the golden moment before the Revolution sent women back into their homes, disenfranchised and out of sight’. Well-known in their own day but probably unknown to each other and certainly little-known today (especially in Anglophone scholarship), they symbolize the successes and failures of the French Enlightenment to make the natural sciences a more hospitable place for women. The book develops across five chapters, each one offering a rich and lively biography of one of the six women, with the exception of the third chapter’s double portrait of the group’s two botanists. One of the...