Imperial Symbolism Research Articles

The Spread and Acceptance of the Yuzhu Xiaojing as Seen in the Xiaojing huangdi gan

<p>唐玄宗（685-762, 712-756在位）曾兩次頒《御注孝經》，欲統一諸家舊注，敦煌本《孝經皇帝感》即《御注》的民間衍生文本，其通俗的表述、名實不符的文本來源，與官方正典截然有別。本文以《御注》兩種文本為例，考察其在民間的傳播與接受形式，探討皇帝權力的下行及邊界。從文本內容來看，《御注》以注疏闡發玄宗「君臣同體」的微言大義，具有君臣關係一元化的特質。《孝經皇帝感》卻是以《御注》讚歌與地方流行的鄭玄舊注拼接而成，皇帝意志受限庶民認知能力而被篩除。從文本產生、傳播的過程來看，五代敦煌仍然延用鄭注，《御注》寥寥無幾，民間歌場效仿《御注金剛經讚詞》創作的《孝經皇帝感》卻頗為流行，反哺了玄宗頒行《御注》於天下的意圖。這種文本雖然剝離御注經典的原生意義，但潛在地成為皇帝的象徵符號，成功傳達其權威。</p> <p> </p><p>During the reign of Tang Xuanzong (685-762, r. 712-756), the Yuzhu Xiaojing was issued twice to try to unify older annotations. The Xiaojing huangdi gan found in the Dunhuang manuscripts is a folk derivative text of the Yuzhu Xiaojing. Its popular style and the unorthodox source of the text are completely different from the canon promulgated by the imperial court. This article focuses on the two forms of the Yuzhu Xiaojing to discuss the spread and acceptance of the emperor’s authority among the people. On the one hand, judging from the content of the two texts, Yuzhu Xiaojing conveys Xuanzong’s interpretation of the “subtle meaning” of the classic: that “the monarch and his subjects are the same.” Its annotations serve to unify the ideological relationship between the monarch and his subjects. However, Xiaojing huangdi gan is a combination of the summary verses of the Yuzhu Xiaojing and the traditional annotations of Zheng Xuan, which had remained popular at the local level. On the other hand, from the point of view of the text generation and dissemination process, in Five Dynasties Dunhuang, Zheng’s annotations remained in use, and there were very few copies of the Yuzhu Xiaojing. Instead, the Xiaojing huangdi gan, which was spontaneously created in folk music venues in imitation of the Summary Verses of the Diamond Sutra, was quite popular. Thus, the emperor’s intentions were fulfilled in an indirect way. Although this text completely away stripped the original meaning of the Yuzhu Xiaojing, it successfully became an imperial symbol, conveying the emperor’s authority.</p> <p> </p>

Goliath’s Humanimal Body: Masculinity, Ethnicity, and Animal Imagery in 1 Samuel 17

Abstract In 1 Samuel 17, Goliath is described using animal imagery, depicted like a sea creature, a lion and bear, a dog, and scavengers’ prey. I argue that these images present Goliath as not fully human, and contribute to the construction of his masculinity and ethnicity. This article traces the following trajectory: masculinity is established then undermined; the foreigner encroaches then is expelled. Goliath is introduced as a hypermasculine ultrapredator. Akin to a sea monster from the chaotic beyond, he has an exoskeleton of fish-scale armour (17:5). David then likens Goliath to lions and bears (17:34–37), imperial symbols for fearsome foreign nations. David, though, can grasp their beards (overturning their masculinity) and slay them. Goliath perceives David to be treating him like a scavenging dog (17:43)—a dishonorable creature encroaching where it does not belong. Consequently, the opponents threaten to give the other’s flesh to the birds and beasts (17:44, 46). Their bodies’ masculine wholeness is disarticulated by scavengers and expelled from society.

Double-Headed Eagle Symbol, The Russian Imperial Emblem and Local Replica in The Kingdom of Georgia

The article focuses on iconic symbols of “Eagles” in the Georgian context from the early Antiquity to the Medieval and Modern periods. It explores the implication of the symbol and its functions to establish meaning in the society. The paper explains the process of interaction among meaning, style, content, and receivers, as well as provides a framework to understand how historical memory can serve as a constitutive, relational, and purposive content for collective and state identities. Acknowledging that heritage is a highly political process, susceptible to the needs of power, the research draws on a number of examples to underline that the symbols of the past portrayed in various media legitimate political symbolism in fact represent political standpoint.
 Keywords: eagle, memory, national identity, imperial symbols, symbols of power

Yehudite Imaginations of King Darius and His Officials: Views from the Province beyond the River

This article analyzes representations of the Persian king Darius and his officials in the Books of Haggai, Zechariah 1–8, and Ezra 4–6 in the current Hebrew Bible. These writings, produced in the Persian period or somewhat later, portray these literary characters in various ways in relation to the restoration of the community, city, and temple of YHWH in Jerusalem. In biblical scholarship, the main interest has been to scrutinize the conditions behind the textual representations of Darius, related to dating the selected texts and the temple restoration, as well as Darius’s role as the central supplier of Achaemenid imperial ideology. The current study suggests refocusing by highlighting the historical significance of the literary imaginations of this monarch. What is at stake is not the historical Darius or the officials Zerubbabel, Sheshbazzar, and Tattenai, but rather literary representations of them suiting the needs of those who produced them. In Haggai and Zechariah 1–8, Darius’s role in the temple restoration is downplayed, while in Haggai, Zerubbabel is represented by a blend of Yahwistic and imperial signs and symbols, and in Zechariah 1–8, the imperial connotations are toned down. This is while Zerubbabel is decisive for authorizing both the temple community and the prophet. In Ezra 4–6, Darius is one of many Persian kings engaged in the restoration of the temple and the city of Jerusalem. While Zerubbabel gains support from the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, Sheshbazzar brings the vessels back to Jerusalem and lays the foundations of the temple on King Cyrus’s command. At the same time, Tattenai gets Cyrus’s order confirmed and, apart from that, is asked to stay away from the works of the Yehudites. By analyzing the representations of Darius and other Persian officials through a cultural-historical lens, selection and perspectivization are stressed. The selected writings convey local negotiations of power relations with the empire in terms of keeping a position in the imperial hierarchy while, at the same time, cultivating the identity of their subaltern group through certain symbols, institutions, and practices.

From International Isomorphism to Traditionalist Iconography

Commonly, Stalin’s death in 1953 is considered to be the major turning point in Soviet history. However, from a monetary perspective, the year 1947 appears to be much more important. While the era between 1917 and 1947 was dominated by high inflation and impoverishment, between 1947 and 1991 Soviet citizens could experience a time of relative monetary stability. Moreover, 1947 also saw a radical shift in Soviet banknote iconography. The multiple and often changing series before 1947 exhibited to a great extent what can be called “international isomorphism”, that is to say, the iconographies reflected the motifs of globally circulating banknotes such as the British pound sterling and the US dollar. In stark contrast to previous policies, the two series issued in and after 1947 presented Russian imperial style enriched with Soviet symbols. This marked shift in Soviet monetary iconography was shot through with continuities on different levels. All designs were conceived under the purview of Ivan Dubasov, head of the artistic department at Goznak, the Soviet state mint, from the 1920s to the 1970s. Also, the iconography put in place in 1947 was a deliberate choice by the Soviet authorities, as they rejected drafts that included too much Bolshevik or too much Russian imperial symbolism. Regardless, this particular iconography became an example of political and economic stability. Until the very last days of the Union, neither party nor state institutions showed any intent to change this.

THE IMPERIAL CONTEXT OF RUSSIAN MEMORIAL POLICY IN ANNEXED CRIMEA

The purpose of the article is to analyze the basic principles of Russian memorial policy in Crimea in the context of Russia's current imperial ambitions. Research methodology is based on a systematic approach, which allows us to consider the policy of memory in Russia as part of public policy to restore the status of "great power" in the world. Scientific novelty of the study is that it has been proved that Russia is actively filling the symbolic space of Crimea with imperial symbols at the same time as preserving the symbols of the Soviet times to restore the imperial status in modern realities. Conclusions. Russia has always considered Crimea its own territory and was not going to give up the peninsula. To support the dominance of pro-Russian sentiment, they actively used symbolic space, trying to fill it with their own cultural symbols. With monuments in honor of Empress Catherine II, the Russian authorities reminded of the first annexation of Crimea and demonstrated their own historical claims to the peninsula. Even, partial decommunization in Crimea took place according to the Russian scenario – the streets were given back the names of the times of the Russian Empire. After the annexation, the Kremlin implemented its own memory policy on the peninsula, demonstrating through new monuments the «Russian status» of the peninsula and its role in the formation and development of the Russian Empire. Accordingly, imperial symbols, along with Orthodox ones, are beginning to play a key role in Crimea. At the same time, Moscow preserves and enlarges the Soviet symbolic space to accelerate the process of building the «Fifth Empire» through the reconciliation of «white» and «red» projects in the mental field, the expansionist foundation of which was laid by the annexation of Crimea.

Constantine’s Radiate Statue and the Founding of Constantinople

This essay challenges the idea that Constantine’s radiate statue on his Constantinopolitan column assimilated the Christian emperor to the pagan deity Apollo Sol, the Radiant Sun. Iconographic analysis of Roman coinage allows us to understand the imperial crown of rays as an attribute of Divus Augustus, Augustus the God. I argue that from Nero through Constantine, the last Roman emperor to use the corona radiata in his portraiture, the radiate crown signified the theomorphic assimilation of the reigning emperor to Divus Augustus. Every man who wore it claimed to be “the Divine Augustus of the Present Age.” The corona radiata was thus at once a religious and an imperial symbol that signified the continuity of the “Augustan line.” My analysis of imperial coinage affirms this conclusion in demonstrating that its uses were independent of the emperor’s personal patron deity, including Sol. These proposals have important repercussions for understanding Constantine’s faith. The religious compromise that the Christian Constantine entered in agreeing to a radiate portrait concerned imperial legitimation. Though a devout believer, the emperor still chose to remain the Divine Augustus in his new city, as that concession signaled something important that he could not communicate otherwise: his new city’s identity vis-à-vis Rome.

«РУССКИЙ ШТЫК» В ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ XVIII – ХХ вв.: МАГИЧЕСКОЕ ОРУЖИЕ ИМПЕРИИ

The article deals with one of the most important unofficial imperial symbols of Russia - the Russian bayonet. For quite a long historical period, 1790-1945, the bayonet remained a metaphor for military, state, and national power. In the historical perspective, it had three main meanings: 1) the glory of the Russian Army, and then the Red Army; 2) the greatness and strength of the Russian Empire; 3) courage, determination, and the Russian man’s contempt for death. The cult of Suvorov and the myth of the Russian bayonet were formed in Russian poetry at the same time - at the end of the XVIII century, and they supported each other. Suvorov’s bayonet charge training remained relevant in the tactics and military theory of the Russian Army until the end of the 19th century. The idea of the mythical Suvorov’s “bogatyr”, a Russian soldier, was poeticized by the commander himself in The Science of Victory (1795) and was continued primarily in the patriotic poetry of the 1830s. The mythologization of the Russian bayonet in Russian poetry and battle prose reached its apotheosis in the early 1830s, at the time of Russia’s confrontation with Europe over the Polish Uprising. The literary myth of the bayonet is presented in its most complete form in Pyotr Yershov’s poem “The Russian Bayonet”. Patriotic lyrics with their collective lyrical subject and nationwide sublime pathos and the battle prose of the 1830s both played a decisive role in the creation of the myth. The hyperbolization of the Russian hero wielding the bayonet in the prose of the 1830s is usually linked with the motif of national superiority. The ideological imperial myth of the invincible and all-powerful Russian bayonet was used primarily within Russia itself. During the Crimean War, the poetical hope that the bayonet would help to win the war with the most well-armed armies in Europe was in vain. In addition, the destruction of the myth was influenced by the spread of the personal point of view in the psychological prose of Leo Tolstoy and Vsevolod Garshin. In Tolstoy’s battle prose, the war rhetoric and the valorization of war are devalued, this “demythologization” also includes an unusual description of the Russian bayonet charge. This trend continues in the prose of Garshin, who gained the experience of an ordinary volunteer soldier in the Russian-Turkish War. In the last third of the 19th century and before the beginning of the First World War, the bayonet in Russian unofficial literature became a metaphor for the repressive state apparatus. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the war, the suppressed national semantics of the bayonet was actualized again. The same thing happened at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War when the very existence of Russians as an ethnic group was called into question. Soviet poets once again turned to the myth of the all-conquering Suvorov’s Russian bayonet.

ОБРАЗ РОССИИ В КУЛЬТУРЕ БИТ

The article deals with one of the most important unofficial imperial symbols of Russia - the Russian bayonet. For quite a long historical period, 1790-1945, the bayonet remained a metaphor for military, state, and national power. In the historical perspective, it had three main meanings: 1) the glory of the Russian Army, and then the Red Army; 2) the greatness and strength of the Russian Empire; 3) courage, determination, and the Russian man’s contempt for death. The cult of Suvorov and the myth of the Russian bayonet were formed in Russian poetry at the same time - at the end of the XVIII century, and they supported each other. Suvorov’s bayonet charge training remained relevant in the tactics and military theory of the Russian Army until the end of the 19th century. The idea of the mythical Suvorov’s “bogatyr”, a Russian soldier, was poeticized by the commander himself in The Science of Victory (1795) and was continued primarily in the patriotic poetry of the 1830s. The mythologization of the Russian bayonet in Russian poetry and battle prose reached its apotheosis in the early 1830s, at the time of Russia’s confrontation with Europe over the Polish Uprising. The literary myth of the bayonet is presented in its most complete form in Pyotr Yershov’s poem “The Russian Bayonet”. Patriotic lyrics with their collective lyrical subject and nationwide sublime pathos and the battle prose of the 1830s both played a decisive role in the creation of the myth. The hyperbolization of the Russian hero wielding the bayonet in the prose of the 1830s is usually linked with the motif of national superiority. The ideological imperial myth of the invincible and all-powerful Russian bayonet was used primarily within Russia itself. During the Crimean War, the poetical hope that the bayonet would help to win the war with the most well-armed armies in Europe was in vain. In addition, the destruction of the myth was influenced by the spread of the personal point of view in the psychological prose of Leo Tolstoy and Vsevolod Garshin. In Tolstoy’s battle prose, the war rhetoric and the valorization of war are devalued, this “demythologization” also includes an unusual description of the Russian bayonet charge. This trend continues in the prose of Garshin, who gained the experience of an ordinary volunteer soldier in the Russian-Turkish War. In the last third of the 19th century and before the beginning of the First World War, the bayonet in Russian unofficial literature became a metaphor for the repressive state apparatus. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the war, the suppressed national semantics of the bayonet was actualized again. The same thing happened at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War when the very existence of Russians as an ethnic group was called into question. Soviet poets once again turned to the myth of the all-conquering Suvorov’s Russian bayonet.

“L’Aigle de Suger” : un faucon plutôt qu’un aigle

The quality and precision of the goldsmith work known as the Eagle lead to question the identity of the bird taken as a model for this precious zoomorph ewer. A set of anatomical features, foremost among which is the tomial tooth of the beak, the shape of the latter and of the head, the complication of the nostril, and the shape of the wings, identify this bird as a falcon. This is surprising because in the Middle Ages the falcon is associated with hunting and pleasure and does not have the Christie, apostolic or imperial symbolism of the eagle, which would have been better adapted to the religious context of Suger's abbey church. Nevertheless, the precision of the anatomical details of this piece contrasts with the poor accuracy of the numerous medieval representations of birds of prey, and leads to the assumption that this exceptional work is based on direct observation of a real bird. Such a preoccupation with realism illustrates one of the characteristics of the emerging Gothic art, a greater attention given to nature

Glasgow 2014, the media and Scottish politics: The (post)imperial symbolism of the Commonwealth Games

This article critically examines print media discourses regarding the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. The forthcoming analysis examines the political symbolism of the Commonwealth Games with regard to the interlinkages between the British Empire, sport and the global political status of the United Kingdom. The article gives specific consideration to the United Kingdom’s declining global power as well as the interconnections between the 2014 Games and the Scottish independence referendum. Hechter’s ‘internal colonialism’ thesis, which portrays Scotland’s marginalised status within the United Kingdom, is drawn upon to critically explore the political symbolism of sport for Scottish nationalism. Discussion then focuses upon the extent to which the modern Commonwealth is symptomatic of the United Kingdom’s declining status as a global power. Finally, the existence of these narrative tropes in print media coverage of the Commonwealth Games is examined, allowing for critical reflections on the continuing interconnections between the media, sport, nationalism and post-imperial global politics.

THE HOUSE OF THE CENTRAL COUNCIL IN KYIV: TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE IMAGE

The article deals with the history of the construction and functioning of one of the most famous Kyiv buildings, which was used as the premises of the Ukrainian Central Council during the Ukrainian Revolution. The construction and the concept of this building are analyzed, and a description of the interior and exterior finishes. The process of transition of the building to the status of the house of meetings of the Central Rada was revealed in detail, its further fate was revealed, the functional transformation that took place with it in different periods of existence was investigated. Thus, the author found out that the building was erected in 1910-1912 by architect P. Alyoshin for the Tsarevich Aleksey (Romanov) Pedagogical Museum in the Art Nouveau style based on the Russian Empire style. From March 1917 the Ukrainian Central Rada worked here (it became a full-fledged "master" of the building since October 1917). It was time when the first changes in the exterior and interior of the house occurred - the Russian imperial coat of arms and the corresponding inscriptions were removed; the UNR coat of arms - Trizub was mounted on the wall; instead of the bas-relief portrait of Tsarevich Alexei, a portrait of Taras Shevchenko was placed, the imperial symbolism was dismantled. A little later, the boardroom was decorated with the emblems of five provinces whose Ukrainian jurisdiction was recognized by the Provisional Government (in 1923, the emblems as a relic of the "counter-revolutionary Council" would be abolished by the new government). In 1920-30s the building on Volodymyrska Street hosted many Soviet institutions (the Institute of International Relations, the Proletarian Museum and the Kyiv Provincial Eastport, the Museum of the Revolution, and the Kyiv Regional Executive Committee). In 1937 it was decided to arrange here a branch of the Moscow Museum of Volodymyr Lenin, having completed and reconstructed the existing premises. Architect Alyoshin, while maintaining the unity of style, extended the sides of the interior and closed them with a block parallel to the man's part, which formed a small courtyard. Interior planning and decoration have also undergone changes - so much of the stucco has been removed, and polychromy has been eliminated (similar activity occurred in the early 1950s). The general conclusion is that changes and transformations of the house on Volodymyrska Street, unconventional for Kyiv architecture, in most situations were controlled by architect P. Alyoshin, who retained the architectural features of the early twentieth century, and the introduction did not violate the overall impression.

The Emperor’s New Clothes: Maximilian von Habsburg and the Visual Culture of Dress During Mexico’s Second Empire

In self-representational strategies, Maxmilian von Habsurg (1832–1867) enlisted the carte-de-visite during his reign as Emperor of Mexico (1864–1867). A primary image, bearing the scripted title of Maximiliano (charro), depicts him in a hybrid costume with accessories of the bourgeois gentleman and of Mexican horsemen. The clothing communicates a shift in imperial symbolism when viewed in light of cartes-de-visite of Mexican leaders, nineteenth-century costumbrista photography, and casta paintings of the previous era. In Maximiliano (charro), the imperial attire derived from that of the Mexican horseman reflects postcolonial ambiguities and the numerous hands with a role in maintaining the independence of the country.

The Politics of National Recognition: Honouring Australians in a Post-Imperial World

The announcement in January 2015 that Prince Philip had been chosen to receive an Australian knighthood (an honour which itself had been controversially revived the previous year) sparked a fury of debate about honours, and about the continuance of a British connection in Australia's national life. Such debates were not new, echoing earlier arguments about honours as a national or imperial symbol. Through two related case studies — the Australian honours system and the Australian of the Year award — this article explores the politics of national recognition in 1970s and 1980s Australia. We consider both the politics involved in the creation and alteration of awards by which individual achievement and service are recognised by the nation, and the politics involved in imagining and recognising an Australian nation as expressed in those awards. We argue that these two institutions were more than a means to acknowledge hard work or sacrifice; they were also significant sites for contests over the nature of Australia's post-imperial identity.

Dante, Riccobaldo and Empire

Dante, Riccobaldo and Empire William Caferro Scholars have long stressed the centrality of empire to Dante’s political theology. Charles Till Davis devoted much of his brilliant career to elucidating the details of what he famously called Dante’s “idea of Rome,” tracing the poet’s evolving views on empire in Convivio, Monarchia and the Commedia. The Romans were a chosen people, chosen by God for world rule on account of their nobility and justice, made manifest by their deeds in war and divine miracles. Empire represented an authority that directed all other authorities. It regulated the civil order (human civiltas) and restrained avarice, which was its greatest adversary. The divine choice of Rome specifically negated the claims to secular rule of the papacy. Empire existed prior to the church. It was indivisible and only its exercise by the Romans, and Emperor Henry VII (1310–1313) in Dante’s lifetime, could bring about the peace that the poet so desired.1 The Monarchia represents Dante’s lengthiest and most detailed discussion of empire. It was written in Latin and intended, as Charles Till Davis argues, for a “highbrow” audience.2 A more succinct treatment of empire is in the sixth canto of Paradiso. Here the Byzantine ruler Justinian, who brought empire and its imperial symbol, the Eagle, back west from the “bounds of Europe” (Constantinople), tells the history of the Roman empire, highlighting the proper relationship between the emperor, who ruled the world, and the pope, who addressed religious issues. Justinian represents the ideal figure of the Roman emperor for Dante. He brought divine justice to the earthly realm through codification of Roman law, transposing in the process the heavenly model of a single, indivisible and universal imperium to the earthly sphere. [End Page 136] Dante’s treatment of empire was part of an extensive contemporary discourse. The historian Robert Folz called the years “from 1270 to the early fourteenth century”—corresponding roughly to Dante’s lifetime—a period of “intense discussion” of empire.3 Joseph Canning described the era as the “most productive and profound” of the whole Middle Ages in terms of the publication of lengthy treatises on political thought.4 Surprisingly little is known, however, of the details of this discourse. Scholars have too often focused on the same handful of writers: the hierocrats on the one hand, who favored papal power; and their anti-papal opponents on the other, who argued on behalf of monarchical power.5 Political theorists highlight the competing papal and imperial claims in a wholly western framework and typically situate Dante’s views in terms of immediate historical antecedents such as the struggle between King Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII, and noteworthy subsequent events such as the contest between Emperor Louis of Bavaria and Pope John XXII and the writings of Marsiglio of Padua (1275–1342). For Dante’s contemporaries, however, the discussion of empire included consideration not only of competing papal and imperial claims, but also of Byzantine Greek imperial claims and concerns about the division of empire east and west.6 The problem was brought to the forefront in Dante’s day by the recapture in 1261 of Constantinople by the Byzantine Emperor Michael Paleologus and by the Council of Lyon (1274), which attempted to heal both the religious schism with Byzantium and the division of empire.7 The discourse on empire was more complex and contested than historians have presented it. Numerous contemporary works and treatises have yet to receive careful scholarly attention. The aim of this essay is to examine Dante’s views on the subject in the terms of those of Riccobaldo of Ferrara (1245–1318). Riccobaldo’s Compilatio Chronologica, written in 1313, and Compendium Romanae Historiae, written in 1317/18, both deal with empire but have received scant attention. A close reading of Dante’s Monarchia and Paradiso 6 alongside Compilatio and Compendium reveals crucial divergences, particularly with regard to the figures of Charlemagne and Justinian, which shed light on Dante’s “idea of Rome.” I will argue that Dante deliberately constructs imperium in a wholly western framework, avoiding the issue of Greek Byzantium and subverting in the process the traditional roles afforded...

On the Money: Existentialism and Imperial Semiotics in A. M. Klein’s The Second Scroll

ABSTRACT A great deal of scholarly attention has been paid to A. M. Klein’s The Second Scroll for its representation of Jewish identity. The narrator of the novel, however, recognizes that, as the descendant of immigrants, he is “a Canadian Jew marginalized from the Holocaust and the foundation of Israel.” In this sense, the narrator of The Second Scroll experiences a double marginalization resulting in a more complex representation of identity than the novel is usually afforded. Few critics, for instance, acknowledge the novel’s indebtedness to the existential philosophy of S⊘ren Kierkegaard and Martin Buber. A close reading of Klein’s use of British imperial symbols in concert with the foundational texts of existentialism and the work of Louis Althusser disrupts the dominant school of thought regarding The Second Scroll. The novel certainly celebrates Judaism, but it is not meant to represent the consolidation of a Jewish identity or ideology; rather, it is a parable for Canadians. As a result of the interpellation or “hail” of ideology, the narrator and his search for his mercurial Uncle Melech is prompted to assert a distinctly Canadian identity.

Review: Modern Architecture and Its Representation in Colonial Eritrea: An In-visible Colony, 1890–1941, by Sean Anderson

Sean Anderson Modern Architecture and Its Representation in Colonial Eritrea: An In-visible Colony, 1890–1941 Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2015, 312 pp., 143 b/w illus. $124.95, ISBN 9781472414960 Sean Anderson's important new book, Modern Architecture and Its Representation in Colonial Eritrea: An In-visible Colony, 1890–1941 , significantly improves our understanding of the built environment in Eritrea during its half century of Italian colonial rule. Anderson discusses the many roles Eritrea served—as military outpost, demographic colony, agricultural settlement, and imperial symbol—under both liberal and fascist regimes. His nuanced reading of urbanism and architecture fuels a careful study of Eritrea's place in the modernization of Italy. Eritrea was the Italian state's first colony in Africa, and as the colonia primogenita (firstborn colony) it enjoyed a high level of public and private investment. It also received a great deal of attention from architects, who saw the colony as a place that would allow unrestrained experimentation. As Anderson explains, Italians conceived of Africa as an “empty space” that needed to be organized and ordered through the built environment. Professional organizations devoted considerable resources to promoting the design of colonial cities and buildings, and private companies invested significant funds in commercial activities in Eritrea and the later colonies of Somalia, Tripolitania and …

Communicating Civilization Through Rituals: Mount Tai Pilgrimages in Song China, 960-1279

This paper examines the imperialfeng封 andshan禪 ritual at Mount Tai in 1008 and its connection with popular pilgrimages among the Mount Tai cult. It aims to demonstrate how ritual can be used as a tool of the imperial state in communicating its political and cultural agenda.Placing the imperial pilgrimage within its historical context at the turn of the eleventh century, it can be understood as an effort to secure mass identification with the state and its authority. More importantly, it could be used to establish ownership of Chinese civilization by the Song dynasty (960-1279) in its competition with the Khitan, who had long adopted Chinese institutions and ideology. Various strategies were deployed by the throne to communicate the imperial symbolism of the mountain. The mountain, therefore, had become valuable symbolic capital. Through the composition of temple inscriptions, the literati were able to redefine the popular ritual practices of the Mount Tai cult and brought them into a hegemonic discourse on the mountain. This facilitated the construction of an imperial cultural identity accessible to all social groups and allowed an abstract concept of Chinese culture to be communicated through the fabric of society.

Racing for the Target

Abstract The imperial boat-racing event, known as ‘Racing for the Target’ in the Northern Song capital Kaifeng in spring, was created at the close of the reunification campaign when the focus of the state policy was shifted towards internal cohesion. It signified the power and great order of the newly reunited empire. Through the re-interpretation of the event and its emulation at the local level, an imperial cultural language of boat racing was forged. It also allowed the imperial symbolism of ‘Racing for the Target’ to be communicated through the fabric of society. This paper treats performance and pageantry as a field of meaning production. It uses ‘Racing for the Target’ as an example to examine how symbols can be manipulated in the display of power. It argues that through the performance of ‘Racing for the Target’ the Song state with its political apparatus sought to establish its dominance over the symbolism of boat racing. Other versions of interpretation therefore were compelled to be confined within the imperial context.

Symbolising the state— the iconography of O'Connell Street and environs after independence (1922)

This paper explores the iconography of Dublin's central thoroughfare, O'Connell Street and its immediate environs in the decades following the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. It follows an earlier paper which examined the iconography of Sackville Street before Independence and turns the focus towards an analysis of the ways in which the street became a significant site for the cultural inscription of post-colonial national identity. It is argued that the erection of new monuments dedicated to the commemoration of the 1916 Rising, as well as the destruction of older imperial symbols, rendered visible the emergence of the newly independent Irish Free State. The paper charts this process of iconographical inscription but also argues that O'Connell Street as a totality has taken on greater symbolic significance than any of the monuments that line its centre. In conclusion the paper examines the contemporary iconography of the street and addresses the apparent transition from political sculpture to public art which has taken place in recent decades throughout the city.