Narratives Of Past Research Articles

The nineties in 1990s Britain: long-sighted temporalities at the turn of the millennium

Abstract Chronological categories of periodization such as decades, centuries and millennia are broadly treated with scepticism by historians. This essay reframes the questions we ask of such categories by exploring their contemporary significance for ‘ordinary’ historical actors. It focuses on the curious case of 1990s Britain, a decade that, in comparison to the historiographical advents of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, has been slow to emerge as a distinct trope of periodization. In considering why this might be, the essay looks beyond explanations that focus on the political legacy of Blairism, the stasis of neo-liberal hegemony or the retrospective notion that the decade marked a ‘holiday from history’ – an oasis of consensus, tranquillity and indeed boredom sandwiched between the class and cold wars of the 1980s and a post-9/11 clash of civilizations. Instead, it examines how the nineties were being constructed, contested and wielded in the 1990s themselves. Drawing on materials generated by the sociological organization the Mass Observation Project (M.O.P.), narratives of past, present and future co-produced by ‘ordinary’ observers and the authors of the M.O.P. directives, the article traces the shifting constellation of decadal temporalities that circulated during the nineties. As the decade drew to a close, the spectre of the millennium encouraged a lengthening of imagined temporal trajectories: eyes were cast beyond the immediately surrounding years to the larger terrain of the century and even the millennium. These long-sighted temporalities obscured the nineties as a category of historical significance, shaping the source base and collective memory of the decade. Ultimately, a study of the temporal regimes operating in 1990s Britain reveals the cultural power and emotional stickiness of seemingly arbitrary chronological markers.

Imaginary and Symbolic Forms of Water between Spirit and Culture

Water is a theme connected to human and social development, not only biologically but also in terms of cultural and identity processes; surprisingly, studies that discuss water from a sociocultural/sociological perspective are scarce. The foundational role of water in the construction of social reality should be highlighted: as a matter of fact, thanks to it identity processes develop, and the realisation of the relationship between human beings and the environment, and between culture and nature, occurs. The relationship with water as a primordial substance tied to the roots of existence pertains to the physiological as well as the historical development of societies. Historically, societies see the presence of water in their territories as an indispensable element for establishing the foundations of civilisations, and a central criterion for setting the bases of development. With regards to the management of territorial resources, it should be noted that, although water is a primary resource, it is not available everywhere. Humans had to struggle to secure reliable water sources, using techniques derived from millenary knowledge systems, which enabled individuals and communities to live and survive in times of abundance and scarcity, tumultuousness and poor health. Past narratives and ethnographies related to traditional communities link symbols to history, productive forms, and material constraints due to the physical factors of the environment. Water is a foundational element of the cosmogonic and theogonic myths that governed the evolution of ancient genealogies and epistemologies. For its intrinsic virtues, water is considered a living and beneficial force: it is hard to find another substance that can at the same time wash away guilt, eliminate impurities, refresh and reinvigorate weary souls, and promise renewal and existential rebirth. Starting from these premises, the essay deals with the theme of water, a humble substance with complex implications, considering the foundations of culture, and analyzing the natural element from a sociological perspective with reference to myths of origins, naturalistic philosophical conceptions, and imaginary, up to and including aspects related to religiosity, to get to the roots of identity.

Voices from the other Side: Reclaiming Africa’s Story through Social Media

With the meteoric advancements in science and technology, the world has increasingly evolved into a global village: bringing in diverse nationalities together at the global table. In this new tapestry of cultures and identities, Africa, with its torturous past history of racism, slavery and colonization, which adversely eroded her cultures and identity, often struggles to extricate itself and stand out in this heavy cauldron of misresented narratives and global influences that threaten to drown out her distinctive voice. This study, cognizant of the current global tilt of young people away from a formal classroom setting towards the more hybrid social media platforms, coupled with the democratization of information dissemination and interactions that these platforms bring, poses a critical research question: Can social media serve as a newmedium for reclaiming Africa’s story? To answer this, the study employing a method of critical analysis and relying heavily on secondary sources such as books, research articles and archives to carry out the discourse, discovers that misrepresentation of Africa overtime by Western media has led to identity crisis for Africans, especially young Africans of the contemporary age, who do not know Africa beyond the Western narrative. It notes that given the common place of social media in the contemporary world, it can serve as a veritable instrument for reclaiming Africa’s story: creating a balance in past narratives told by the West and currently by globalization, which robs Africa of its distinctive identity.

Can It Be a Gamechanger? Interrogating the Prospects of Decolonization Through Public History in Japan

Abstract As a historical settler and colonizer in Asia, yet a state not colonized by European countries, Japan and its colonial history seem to have been left out from the debates on public history as a decolonizing process, due to the field having arguably been Eurocentric. This article interrogates the extent to which public history could serve as a vehicle to decolonize the history-making process in Japan and demonstrates the challenges of decolonizing through public history within Japan’s national framework due to nationalistic or patriotic silencing and censorship. Such nationalistic public history is rooted in Japan’s narratives of victimhood fostered in its course of history, including the ‘inferior’ position against the West or the experience of the atomic bombs. Moreover, Japan’s historical division between the internal and external colonies as well as its nationalistic, defensive attitude towards the history of external colonialism have played significant roles in burying its settler colonial past. To include narratives about the internal and external colonial victims, I argue that both Eurocentric decolonization and academia-centered public history in Japan need to be, in themselves, decolonized so that they provide more nuanced approaches to Japan’s colonial past. Furthermore, given that narratives of the colonial past in national history projects can be silenced under nationalistic victimhood, this article suggests that transnational collaborative public history could disconnect historical narratives from nationalistic discourses of victimhood, gathering more sympathy beyond Japan and supporting efforts towards decolonization. The overall article eventually contributes to decolonizing the Eurocentric debates on ‘decolonization through public history.’

Fabulating Archival Arts: An Exploration of the Complexities of Politics, History, and Memory in a Postmodern Context

Archival art, which emerged in the last century, has become a significant influence in the art world, challenging the constraints of traditional historical narratives. It offers viewers a more nuanced and inclusive framework for thinking, providing an alternative engagement with history free from dominant past narratives. This paper undertakes a comprehensive analysis of two significant archival artworks, namely the Atlas Group and Sputnik. Through this analysis, it aims to elucidate the societal impacts engendered by archival art that adopts critical fabulation as a strategy. Combining textual and graphic analyses with perspectives from postmodernism and deconstructionism, the research demonstrates that fictional archival art stimulates profound contemplation of the interconnectedness between the past, present, and future through artistic expression. It also examines the emotional impact of revisiting the past, records, and memory. By navigating the complexities and ambiguities of postmodern society through archival artistic expression, we can foster a more inspiring approach to understanding this art form.

Memorability of Romanian dissidence: Ordinary people, secret files and artistic remediations

The article explores the conditions necessary for a narrative recounting of past events to become memorable and incorporated into collective memory. The analysis is focused on the role played by artistic remediations in creating such memorability. In Romania, as well as in other East Central European countries, the production of memorability and the management of the resulting collective memories are interlinked with the narratives of communism that dominate the memorialisation of the recent past. The article reviews several examples of acts of dissent, based on their representativeness and the existing literature, and question the memorability of dissident acts by considering the memory discourse on communism and the involvement of different agents of memory. It also interrogates the use of the Romanian secret police (Securitate) files in artistic productions, examining this acknowledgement of the role played by the Securitate in creating the narratives of the communist past. Two artistic productions based on reworkings of the Securitate files are analysed: a documentary theatre play staged by Gianina Cărbunariu, Uppercase Print (2013), and Radu Jude’s 2020 film of the same title, both presenting the story of Mugur Călinescu. The article argues that these productions question mainstream frames of memory by revisiting the narratives and biographies created by the Securitate files and give new, artistically mediated voices to victims, perpetrators and collaborators.

Female Microhistorical Archaeology

Abstract Microhistory is a part of historical research that focuses on the behaviours, practices, and perceptions of individuals and small communities, locating them in social, economic, and cultural frameworks. Although archaeology has already focused on similar attempts, microarchaeology seldom takes a female perspective. This article aims to discuss how microhistory can be used in historical archaeology, engendering past narratives, those which are usually so difficult to find from historical documents and archaeological sites, and introducing the concept of the ego-artefact, the artefacts we know to have belonged to specific people and which are almost biographical. By doing this analysis, we are individually reconstructing past narratives while including these stories in macronarratives.

“It is like the re-enactment show”: Narrative and historical culture among young French Canadian students

This study of historical consciousness illustrates the cultural processes by which French Canadian students narrate the history of their national past. Findings are based on data collected through a narrative inquiry with 635 francophone students from a variety of backgrounds. Although participants made explicit references to and use of formal learning from their school history courses, a majority of participants produced simplified narratives largely informed by mythistories of their historical culture. These findings suggest that the current curricular emphasis on historical thinking may fail to challenge students’ historical ideas in ways that take into consideration the forces of historical culture (mythistories, mnemonic infrastructure representations, conceptions of the past) and help them generate more complex narratives of the collective past that acknowledge the diversity of perspectives present in the society in which they life.

The Imperial Castle in Poznań: Histories of its Polonization

The Imperial Castle in Poznań, conceived as a residence for Wilhelm II, reflects a complex history of Polonization. The original project aimed to culturally and politically “elevate” (heben) the eastern German provinces. The castle was at the centre of a symbolical space, surrounded by institutions (Academy Building, Prussian Settlement Commission, etc.) showcasing national identity. After First World War, the building was “polonized”, which included removing German symbols and its establishment as a residence of the President of the Republic, while many of the surrounding buildings housed key Faculties of the newly created University of Poznań. The castle’s role during Second World War as Hitler’s residence and subsequent adaptation in the post-war era further shaped its identity narrative. The decision to preserve it after the war faced opposition, but since its transformation into the “Palace of Culture” in 1962 (renamed “Zamek [Castle] Culture Centre” in 1993), it rapidly become part of public memory. Post-1989, discussions on the castle’s function and identity led to renovations, the establishment of the “Royal-Imperial Route” destined at tourists, a revived interest in its history, and even local pride. The castle, once a symbol of German rule, now stands as a dynamic part of the city’s history, integrating past narratives with contemporary cultural functions. However, the reconstruction of the “Polish” Royal Castle of Przemysł II, which started in 2010, a controversial project aiming to overshadow the “German” Imperial Castle, reflects tensions between historical narratives in Poznań. Recent developments, such as events organized by the LGBT+ community, showcase the castle’s evolving meaning.

Post-diasporic Resilience to Assimilation via the Heritagisation of the Diasporic Legacy among the Descendants of Lithuanian Exiles to Trans-Volga Russia

Abstract The Trans-Volga Lithuanian diaspora has for more than 150 years traversed the challenges of assimilation into a majoritarian Russian society. However, in the contemporary era, the third- and fourth-generation descendants’ resilience to assimilation is focused on sensitivity to roots and a valorisation of the diasporic past. The role of agency in diasporic memory, place-making and cultural representations is of key importance. The aim of this paper is to focus on the post-diasporic domains of communality by highlighting the shared values and aspirations, strategies and experiences of the reclamation and heritagisation of diasporic legacy. Analysis of fieldwork among the descendants has shown that their resilience to assimilation is grounded in the dominant narrative of the heroic past of the diaspora firstcomers: in terms of—Lithuanians as pioneers of the Kazakh steppe; in the heritagisation of Lithuanian objects and places via collection and museumisation of ethnographic objects, and co-memorising; the re-Lithuanianisation of diaspora places through erecting Catholic chapels and crosses; and in the festive representations of traditional Trans-Volga Lithuanian culture at state-sponsored local multicultural festivals.

The Role of Autobiographical Resilience Memories in Emotion Regulation: An Account of Age Differences in Mnemonic and Positive Reappraisal

ABSTRACT A lifetime of resilience through emotionally challenging experiences may benefit older adults, lending to emotion regulation mastery with time. Yet the influence of autobiographical experiences on momentary reappraisal, the reinterpretation of negative stimuli as more positive, has never been empirically tested. This online study examined the extent to which associating life memories of resilience with novel negative scenarios enhanced reappraisal efficacy and reduced difficulty to reappraise. Younger and older adults reappraised negative images by associating reappraisals to freely selected autobiographical resilience memories, cued autobiographical resilience memories, or by finding situational silver linings without mnemonic association (control). Changes in image emotional intensity ratings revealed no difference across reappraisal conditions for younger adults, while older adults most effectively down-regulated emotional intensity using the control reappraisal strategy. Older adults found autobiographical memories more helpful for mood regulation and less difficult to implement, and identified greater similarities between novel negative scenarios and their memories than younger adults. Surprisingly, greater similarity between resilience memories and negative images was associated with lower reappraisal efficacy for both age groups. Findings demonstrate the age-equivalent benefits of utilizing reappraisals associated with past narratives of resilience and suggest a sacrifice of immediate hedonic benefit for disproportionately greater subjective benefits with age.

Embracing the Pros and Cons of the New Weight Loss Medications (Semaglutide, Tirzepatide, Etc.).

The history of multiple weight loss medications has been a concerning paradox based on an increased cardiovascular risk despite significant reductions in adipose tissue and weight. A new class of weight loss medications could change this past narrative based on early preliminary results of cardiovascular risk (not events-still need to be determined) and weight reduction in non-diabetics that acutely competes with results achieved with bariatric surgery. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive summaryof the advantages and disadvantages of these newer medications, and how they could impact urology. Weight loss of - 15 to - 20% compared to baseline has become plausible in the short-term and preliminary guidance to reduce acute and chronic adverse events are receiving attention. However, the cost, access, conflicts of interest, supply chain, life-long adherence issues, and the long-term diverse implications on mental and physical health when exposed to this class of medications (GLP-1 agonists) are unknown. The profound caloric reductions should also result in baseline or ongoing nutritional deficiency testing, and general and specific dietary recommendations, which could theoretically mimic some bariatric surgery pre- and post-surgical protocols but has yet to be studied. Regardless, the potential impact of these medicines within a variety of medical specialties needs clinical research. Current and future lifestyle interventions, dietary patterns, and medicines in the weight loss category need to be held to a paradigm whereby cardiovascular health should improve with significant weight loss without a negative impact on mental health. In urology, the ability to impact cancer risk, ED, FSD, incontinence, infertility, nephrolithiasis, and multiple other endpoints are plausible (based on bariatric surgery data) but need preliminary clinical research. Other medicines with a similar or even larger potential impact are in clinical trials, and thus, a concise overview for clinicians and researchers was needed for objective guidance. Currently, comprehensive lifestyle changes utilized with and without these medications continue to garner positive mental, physical, and legacy effects, which suggest that they are as necessary as ever in the treatment of the numerous conditions impacted by unhealthy weight gain.

Prince and King Danylo Romanovych in the ukrainian intellectual discourse of Galicia in the second half of the 19th century

The article is devoted to the study of the history of the image of Prince and King Danylo Romanovych in the Ukrainian cultural memory of the second half of the 19th century. The choice of the suggested segment of memory studies in Ukrainian history was chosen due to the ideological and, to some extent, the political context of the creation and subsequent construction of the image of Danylo Romanovych as «Prince Danylo Halytskyi» was not investigated in historiographical tradition.An important role is devoted to understanding the basic terms of memory discourse, which became the core of the implementation of the ideas of the author in the article. Also, some of the features of the creation of historical myths surrounding the biography of the ruler Danylo Romanovych should be discovered around the ruler’s biography in the process of forming a national identity. Due to the large number of anti-scientific names, the Medieval Ruler is deprived of a real source background. This led to the formation of a limited perspective of historical research, which reduces the cultural influence of his figure to a single Western Ukrainian region and does not allow to reconstruct fully the period of transformation of the Galicia-Volyn state into the Kingdom of Rus.The article also deals with the designing of the image of Danylo Romanovych in the historical representations of the Galician Russophiles, who managed to create a stable image of «Danylo Halytskyi» in the consciousness of the Ukrainian society. The author highlighted the peculiarities of the intellectual history of the representatives of the Ukrainian national movement in Galicia, especially Oleksandr Barvinskyi. The scientist tried to borrow the Russophile image of «Danylo Halytskyi» for his historical narrative of the Ukrainian past, by using the figure of the medieval Ruler as an element of the historical unity of the past of Galicia and Naddnipryanshchyna.

Preparing for the deployment of ready-made stories in social interaction: reflexivity and narrative practices in professional communication

Abstract Since the nineties, the idea that narratives are essential for an efficient communication has massively spread in management, marketing and politics, supported by the profuse publication of storytelling guides and criticized by a number of social commentators. Nevertheless, little is known about how reflexive activities specific to professional communication partake in the visibility and solidification of this specific way of conceiving the use of stories. Drawing on semiotic-inspired works in linguistic anthropology, studies on talk-in-interaction and narrative analysis, this article analyzes how reflexive activities contribute to the construction of specific conceptions of what narratives are and what they do in professional communication. To achieve this, the article relies on a single case study that details the kind of ready-made stories and contextualization devices a storytelling guide provides for its readers. The analysis shows that the storytelling guide builds up a cultural model that is both archiving past narrative situations (a model-of action) and potentially generating new narrative situations (a model-for action). By doing so, the storytelling guide not only singles out specific communicative resources but also fuels a metapragmatic model in which accomplished storytellers are at the top of the social structure.

Digital heritage infrastructures as cultural policy instruments: Europeana and the enactment of European citizenship

ABSTRACT Europeana is a digital infrastructure aggregating the most extensive collection of cultural heritage data in Europe. Launched in 2008, it has enjoyed the political and financial support of the European Union and its member states, becoming the most ambitious and financed digital cultural project to date. For this reason, Europeana is an outstanding example of how the European Commission has used digital heritage platforms to pursue its cultural agenda. Nevertheless, the social and cultural implications of this digital infrastructure are still understudied. Following Europeana’s evolution, this article explores Europeana’s role in transforming the cultural sector and defining a European digital cultural policy. Analysing how the goals of the EU cultural policy have been implemented in the development of Europeana, this article reveals how Europeana has been instrumental in steering the digitisation of the European cultural sector through the development of standards and best practices. Furthermore, through digital heritage curation, Europeana plays a critical role in producing the narrative of a European past, promoting the construction of European citizenship.

From narrative past to mirativity and direct evidentiality: the case of Moldavian (Csángó) Hungarian

AbstractThis paper describes the evolution of grammaticalized evidentiality in the Moldavian dialect of Hungarian. It documents how the suffix-a/e, originally the marker of narrative past, became a rare, elevated marker of past tense highlighting significant past events; how it assumed a mirative overtone; and how the features ʻwitnessedʼ and ʻimmediate pastʼ, often present in mirative utterances, became inherent parts of its meaning. This grammaticalization path has resulted in an evidential system with typologically unique features. It is a two-term system based on the opposition of direct evidentiality and no evidentiality – violating the alleged universal that if a language has grammaticalized direct evidentiality, it has also grammaticalized indirect evidentiality. Mirative meaning is expressed by the same -a/esuffix that also encodes direct evidentiality – whereas it is claimed to be the extension of inferred evidentiality elsewhere. The unique properties of Moldavian Hungarian evidentiality are derived from the historical evolution of the -a/esuffix.

Postcolonial hauntings in riverine London: conviviality and melancholia

ABSTRACT In his 2000 book, Between Camps, and its 2005 follow-up, Postcolonial Melancholia, Paul Gilroy described postcolonial melancholia—a failure to mourn the loss of imperial prestige—and conviviality—the messy and banal navigation of fractally complex but increasingly less meaningful lines of difference in the city—as two opposing but related characteristics of the British urban experience at the dawn of the century. Nowhere is this more evident than in the neighbourhoods of riverine East London, whose identity and urban morphology have been shaped by the river running through them, upriver to the heart of the imperial metropolis and downriver to Britain’s extensive colonies and postcolonies. In these long-standing arrival quarters, the structure of feeling includes two elements in tension with each other: a mode of lament expressing a form of morbid attachment to the perceived greatness of the imperial age, whose ghostly afterlife is etched in the monumental architecture of London’s boroughs and inscribed in the names of its streets and buildings; and a fragile emergent form of convivial coexistence that finds resonance in alternative narratives of the imperial past. Gidley’s article addresses these issues through data from long-standing research engagement with Bermondsey and Deptford on the southern shore and with Barking on the northern shore of the Thames.

Memory Politics in Bahrain: The Invocation of the Early Modern Past in the Aftermath of the February 14, 2011 Uprising

Abstract: On February 14, 2011, protests broke out in Bahrain led by the mostly Shi'i opposition against the Sunni Al Khalifa ruling family. After a failed attempt to appease the protestors, the Al Khalifa government blamed Iran for the unrest and invited Saudi and Emirati troops to enter Bahrain and crush the uprising. This article explores how and why the events of an earlier crisis, which began with a Shi'i uprising in 1922 and widened to include Iranian nationals in 1923, was remembered and communicated by states and social groups in the aftermath of the 2011 protests, both in scholarly articles and in the digital media. These contested narratives of Bahrain's past are located within the politically charged context of the 2011 uprising to shed light on the relationship between memory and politics in Bahrain.

Images of displaced memories: documentation, intervention, and the ethics and aesthetics of seeing

This article considers the works of Polish artist Łukasz Baksik and Israeli artist Simcha Shirman, both of whom used photographic practices to address memory and displacement through depicting graves and gravestones. Baksik's most prominent project, titled Macewy Codziennego Użytku [Matzevot for Everyday Use] (matzevot is Hebrew for ‘gravestones’) documents and brings home a socially and politically fraught phenomenon by which Jewish gravestones are plundered or misappropriated from cemeteries in Poland, and transformed into everyday uses such as building materials or working tools. From Shirman's wide-ranging oeuvre, I discuss a series of photographs depicting graves and gravestones, taken at Muslim cemeteries in Acre – a city where his parents, both Holocaust survivors, settled after World War II. It is argued that despite lacking visual or formal resemblances, both projects − through interventions in the sensible and memory − resonate in shared consciousness towards contemporary global issues such as diaspora, homeland, and nationality. Not only do both projects illuminate how contemporary art elaborates forms of memory, identity, and production of historical knowledge, but they also reveal a paradigmatic shift from the deconstruction of past narratives to imagining political and ideological alternatives, serving inter alia as a means of rectification and healing.

Democratic Illusions: The Protestant Campaign for Conscientious Objection in the Early Federal Republic of Germany

AbstractDuring the early-Cold-War controversy over West German rearmament, the Protestant Church emerged as a center of activism for the right of conscientious objection to military service, departing from decades of precedent. This article uses the dramatic about-face of the Protestant Church to throw new light on how West Germans reimagined democratic politics after Nazism. Building on recent challenges to paradigms of postwar liberalization, it argues that illusory narratives of the Nazi past played a key role in West Germany's transition to democracy. Protestant activists for the right of conscientious objection drew on an imagined legacy of anti-Nazi resistance to reframe the idea of “conscience,” long associated with patriotic loyalties, as a uniquely Protestant contribution to democratic culture. In doing so, they came to identify their church as a pillar of West German democracy, even as they ensconced tendentious accounts of the Nazi past in postwar law and politics.