National Psyche Research Articles

‘You should not be that good in week three:’ what can Strictly Come Dancing tell us about feedback and performativity in UK education policy?

The past decades have seen a plethora of TV reality talent shows emerge. The viewing population likes nothing more than seeing a ‘class’ of bakers, sewers, potters or dancers develop their skills and face the scrutiny of judges before being whittled down to a winner. The popularity of these shows says something about the national psyche but, aside from the entertainment value, may also carry conceptions of teaching, learning, assessment and feedback. By applying a metalinguistic thematic analysis to judges’ feedback, this paper seeks to examine how one UK show in particular, ‘ Strictly Come Dancing,’ presents feedback and, using a feedback framework, how this is understood. This feedback framework is notable for the links made to self-regulation, an area that continues to influence UK education policy. This paper will argue that when popular TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing are viewed through a pedagogical lens, they reveal models of feedback which are not necessarily valued. Furthermore, analysis reveals the spectacle of normalised and broader educational neoliberalism policy reflected back at us.

Recapturing the Past: The Role of Historical Memory in Polish and Hungarian Populism

Collective memory is a driving force in populist and nationalist politics. The emotional appeals of a shared history, particularly relating to notions of victimhood and resistance, are deeply influential in national identity formation. In this essay, Hungary’s Fidesz party and Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) are explored in relation to their tendency to manipulate history to construct self-serving collective memories. Both Fidesz and PiS successfully employ selective interpretations of historical events to not only mobilize support but also to quell dissent, employing emotive appeals and moral justifications deeply rooted in the national psyche. In order to combat the illiberal and anti-democratic tendencies of populist manipulations of collective memory, this essay argues that strong civil societies and the promotion of alternative narratives of collective memory are necessary. Editorial Note: This final version of this piece was to be titled "The Past Reimagined: The Role of Historical Memory in Polish and Hungarian Populism". Due to an editorial error, a draft title was published in the print edition. In the spirit of continuity between the print and online edition, we have kept the title of the print edition's in the online version, but have included this note to explain the discrepancy. Our apologies to the author for the error.

Broadcasting a Legend: The Canadian TV Miniseries The Arrow (1997)

The Avro Arrow, the supersonic jet interceptor designed just outside Toronto to meet Royal Canadian Air Force specifications as the CF-105 but cancelled by Ottawa at the flight-testing stage toward the end of the 1950s, has long occupied a prominent place in the Canadian public imagination. To illustrate this phenomenon, commentators have repeatedly pointed to the range of representational forms, and individual instances therein, through which popular interest in the Arrow has manifested itself: page, stage, screen, and a myriad other means of expression. In doing so, they have often unintentionally signalled that these various manifestations are of equal relevance in demonstrating the impact of the Arrow on the national psyche. Through examining the origin, development, and broadcast aftermath of The Arrow, first aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation around forty years after the events described, this article seeks to situate this dramatic miniseries within the long-running controversy surrounding the cancellation of the aircraft, and show how and why it has had a significantly greater impact in shaping popular national awareness of, and empathy for, certain beliefs concerning the nature and meaning of the rise and fall of the Avro Arrow in Canada than any other cultural artifact over the past six decades.

A machine of the same: Repetition in the foundational discourse of the Argentinean “being” (1976–1983)

ABSTRACT Using the example of the military regime in Argentina (1976-1983) and relevant archival materials, this article demonstrates the prerequisite of exalted language in constructing an enemy and how a discursive ‘machine of the same’ was put into operation. The author argues that what made this operation unique is its structure of repetition that stimulated “the tendency to merge” what is “foreigner-to-the-ego”, and the “enemy outside” into a single concept in the Argentinian national psyche. As a theoretical lens, the author examines the military regime's language through Freud's understanding of groups and civilization and Laplanche's proposition that cultural narratives in the form of mytho-symbolic explanations help us translate the sexual drive and offer a “solution” to the helplessness of the infant-adult. The author further claims that at other times a cultural narration functions as an anti-translation device when set against the emergence of a new net of significations. The nation's founding narrative of an Occidental-Spanish-Catholic “being” that first effaced its indigenous origins and then its Arabic and Jewish inheritance was brought back by the military regime as a mytho-symbolic narration that formed a shield against the repressed remnants of the enigmatic message pressing for a new translation.

Refracted: Mohammad Mosaddeq and Iranian National Identity

A long history of political power struggles has shaped Iranian national identity. Each successive regime has sought to take control of Iranian political currents to reach its own objectives, and in the process has influenced Iranian identity in important ways. Few political figures in Iranian history have been as significant as Mohammad Mosaddeq in the shaping of Iranian identity, which he represents in ways that other political figures have failed to capture. His power to shape Iran's relationship with Western powers and his ability to project the image of Iran onto the world stage have enabled the endurance of his significance in the Iranian national psyche, which continues to show itself with his symbolic appearance in a range of political activities, including student rallies and public demonstrations.

Analyzing the Spiritual Connotation of Japanese Pop Culture from the Course of Modernization Based on Contemporary Japanese Writers

The development of pop culture in Japan has long historical roots. Since its post-war modernization, Japan has successfully transformed itself from an old culture-importing country to a culture-exporting country. The article focuses on a number of epochal points since Japan's post-war renaissance, analyzing a number of representative Japanese authors and their works from 1945 to the present, and understanding the birth and spread of Japanese popular culture. Studies have shown that the development of Japanese popular culture has been heavily influenced by European and American culture, but has also demonstrated rebellion and reflection on past cultures and ideologies, ultimately opening up a wide range of cultural areas on this basis. The article takes the representative writers and works of contemporary Japan as the blueprint for research, and finds that Japanese pop culture has a unique rebellious character and humanistic sentiment in its spiritual connotation. In the present day, the Japanese national psyche, on the other hand, interacts and influences popular culture.

Feasting on the land: Haunted political space in recent Welsh language films

This article will focus on spectrality in the cinematic spaces of two Welsh language films, Yr Ymadawiad (The Passing) (2015) and Gwledd (The Feast) (2021). Both films envision spectral happenings as a means of exploring and re-exploring past and present debates about the endlessly contested nature of the Welsh landscape and the resulting hauntological traces within the national psyche. The films suggest contradictory versions of the Welsh landscape. Often described as empty and barren, Wales has simultaneously been seen as a rich resource for extensive extraction of its natural resources. With located hauntings by ghosts that are specific and placed, Yr Ymadawiad’s temporal indeterminacy imagines ghostly presences beneath the waters of a drowned village, while Gwledd depicts the horrific revenge of an earth at the mercy of humans, characterizing human use of rural space as monstrous and destructive. Both films are highly located and rooted within specific Welsh landscapes, depicting both the uniqueness of the Welsh experience and its intimate connection with global issues relating to the loss of land.

THE ‘CAST’ING CONVENTION: IMPACT OF INDIAN FILM MUSIC ON REINFORCING GENDER STEREOTYPES

The impact of Bollywood (the Indian Hindi film industry) on the national psyche as well as its international popularity cannot be overrated. So is the music that is an integral part of it. It outlives the movie and then becomes a part of the everyday life of people, being played in public places, at religious festivals, in personal and professional functions and interestingly being even adapted to other forms of expression (like bhajans/devotional music). At a more dangerous level, it surreptitiously births, embeds and reinforces stereotypes becoming the palimpsest that serves to define standards expected and exacted from women. This not only thus shapes the approach towards women but also significantly impacts women’s approach towards themselves. By referring to some of the popular and oft recalled Bollywood Hindi songs across the decades, this researcher would like to unearth the palimpsest and decode how it results in the ‘cast’ing convention and becomes the kaleidoscope through which Indian womanhood is viewed.

Remembering the Nation

This thesis traces how national allegory is employed, developed, and altered in the early novels of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Primarily guided by Fredric Jameson’s essay on national allegory and his assertion that the category is “profoundly discontinuous, a matter of breaks and heterogeneities, of the multiple polysemia of the dream rather than the homogenous representation of the symbol,” this study explores how A Grain of Wheat (1967) and Petals of Blood (1977) reconstruct the dislocated memory of the individual through the traumatic history of the collective, and how this reconnection of the private and public allows for a new imagining of the postcolonial nation. The ambivalent motif of shared cultural memory and its many figurations throughout these novels are investigated extensively. In A Grain of Wheat, the motif of betrayal, experienced by nearly every character in the novel, signals an ironic, introspective turn on national unity and an examination of the unfulfilled promises of the Mau Mau’s decolonial struggle. Told through the characters’ individual flashbacks to one another, principally through the arch-traitor Mugo, the memory of betrayal is seen as simultaneously the hollowing of social bonds and the basis for collective regeneration, with the survivors of the Emergency recognizing and negotiating the pitfalls of national consciousness while dedicating themselves to redeeming those who sacrificed their lives for it. Benedict Anderson’s essay on memory and forgetting and Frantz Fanon’s critique of the national leader are vital components to this discussion of how the novel employs the motif of betrayal and memory in order to counter the mandate by Jomo Kenyatta to “forgive and forget” the Mau Mau’s struggle against Kenyan loyalists and colonial occupants. Whereas A Grain of Wheat was primarily concerned with the immediate aftermath of independence on the national psyche, Petals of Blood directs our attention to the epic volume of history and the metamorphoses that the nation undergoes in its constant battle against imperialism and its desire for unity. The ambivalent motif of betrayal in A Grain of Wheat is mirrored by the motifs of ceremony, fire, and education in Petals of Blood, which are employed to construct a Janus-faced history of the nation exploited by the neocolonial government for its self-interest, and intervened upon by the workers and peasantry to cultivate a tradition of renewed resistance. Anderson’s essay on Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History is discussed in reference to how the postcolonial nation inherits the state from its predecessor, and Fanon and Ngũgĩ’s essays on national culture are considered for their dialectical frameworks of history and the cultivation of “combat literature.” In both these novels of his early career, Ngũgĩ sought to imagine how the nation could rejuvenate the energy and idealism of the Mau Mau uprising and empower the Kenyan workers and peasantry into a different, more equitable, socialist mode of the nation. To see the complete thesis, please visit https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/fq977w193.

Jacques Feyder’s Paris, 1923–35: Cartographies of gender, class and empire

Jacques Feyder ranked among France’s most critically acclaimed directors during the 1920s and 1930s. Over the course of these decades, he repeatedly illustrated tensions pertaining to class, gender and empire in Paris. Drawing on close textual analysis, historical contextualization and archival research, this article traces two developments in Feyder’s vision of the capital and its shifting economic, political and cultural climate: first, the evolution of Paris from a locus clearly signposted by recognizable locations to a studio-built milieu that is heavily reliant on generic Parisian tropes; second, the city’s transition from a site where the post-war national psyche and associated family structures can be optimistically redefined to a politically volatile environment replete with criminality and sexually disruptive women.

Geo-psychology of Nepal as a ‘Small State’

What is ‘small’ in the small states? What is the geo-psychology of Nepal as a small state? Scholars have not been able to conclude what is ‘small’ in small states. The economy, population, territory, and military elements have been regarded as criteria responsible for the smallness of the small states. The study has investigated the psychological ‘self’ and ‘forced’ positioning as a small state. Further, the study argues that the smallness in Nepal is the psychological construction determined by the geographical positioning of the country as well as through social phenomena of interaction (cognitive process) and experiential form. The study forwards the argument that Nepal as a small state is the outcome of the geopolitical reasoning and geopolitical imagination of the ‘other’. The smallness of Nepal is intersubjective, a psychological construct, which was shaped through shared experience, particularly in relation to the neighbours. The study contests the traditional idea of quantitative analysis of smallness in a state, unfolding the collective national psyche of small states which are mainly impacted by geography and intersubjective interactions. Furthermore, the study’s conceptual framework is based on the idea of ‘geopsychology’, which takes ‘geography’ as a determining factor of state psychology. The qualitative study examines the origin of smallness in Nepal using secondary data sources from academic journals, books, reports, and online platforms.

CHARACTERISTICS AND SPECIAL FEATURES OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

This article analyzes children's fiction and its specific features, explores the importance of the literary fairy tale genre and folklore, the concepts of national psyche and psychologism, and the differences between children's literature and adult literature

Psychological Peculiarities of the Ukrainian People in Context of Globalization and Transformations

This article analyzes multiple interpretations of the concept of "mentality" and its structure. The peculiarities of the psychology of the Ukrainian people are studied/analyzed, and the main features of it are highlighted. The factors influencing the identity of modern Ukrainians are the living environment, geopolitical influences, relations with other peoples, history and historical conditions of the nation's development, church, and the religion. The manifestations of the psychology of the Ukrainian people hinder the effective socio-economic development of the country when interfacing the globalization. This article analyzes the consequences of the destructive influence of the repressive Soviet regime on the national culture and social consciousness of the Ukrainian people. Attention is focused on the need to cultivate behavioural characteristics of the people aiming at the implementation of an effective complex solutions, which tend to contribute to increasing the competitiveness and success of the State. A conclusion is made about the negative impact on the national psyche of the long-term absence of their own State in global domains.

Rethinking the Sword Verse and Interfaith Dialogue: A Contextual Analysis

After sixty years of independence, Nigeria still struggles to find a unifying identity. Hyper religiosity and rigid tribal consciousness radically continue to define the national psyche. Colonialism operates with the intent to erase the other who falls victim to its sway. Thus, a society that suffers from the trauma of colonialism is a society that is always struggling with the fears of erasure, and Nigeria is no exemption. As Christians and Muslims seek to legitimize themselves in the country, they end up erasing each other from national life as though they have a monopoly over the nation. To address these colonial pathologies defining the national psyche, an interfaith theology of recognition ought to be embraced. This is a theology that is intentionally inclusive and grounded in the prophetic with the intent to affirm the flourishing of all lives both within and outside of one’s own religious tradition.

АКТУАЛЬНІ АСПЕКТИ ПОЛІТИКИ СОЦІАЛЬНОЇ ЯКОСТІ В ПОСТКОНФЛІКТНІЙ ЕКОНОМІЦІ УКРАЇНИ

Зміна якості життя кожного українця в нових реаліях вимагає переосмислення наукового змісту концепції соціальної якості в постконфліктній економіці. Її переформатування зумовлене глибокими змінами в соціальному і економічному житті людства, що трансформується під впливом збройних конфліктів, масштабних терористичних актів, пандемії COVID-19, стійкого забруднення навколишнього середовища. В останнє десятиліття на планеті спостерігається тенденція до інтенсифікації насильства, про що свідчить кількість воєнних конфліктів. Глобальний характер розвитку конфліктності активізує проблему концепції соціальної якості для умов повоєнного відновлення суспільства в країнах, що постраждали від збройної агресії, відповідно за всіма базовими її компонентами. Особливість реалізації концепції соціальної якості повоєнної соціоекономіки, зважаючи на суттєву відмінність умов і факторів, які традиційно визначають європейську практику, полягатиме як у традиційній участі держави в соціальному житті й забезпеченні соціальної якості повоєнного суспільства, що суттєво трансформується в умовах збройного протистояння, так і активній участі окремих особистостей у цьому процесі. З початкового етапу відновлення соціоекономічного простору в повоєнний період на засадах соціальної якості необхідно дотримуватися фундаментальних соціальних прав на основі визначених Європейською соціальною хартією зі змінами 1996 р. Щоб не допустити поширення бідності та маргіналізації населення в повоєнний період відновлення і реструктуризації соціоекономічного простору, важливо залучати механізми, спрямовані на досягнення соціальної рівності на засадах солідарності та субсидіарності як спільних з ЄС соціальних цінностей. З огляду на зміст і роль соціальної якості як одного з важливих механізмів соціоекономічного відродження і реструктуризації у повоєнний період, необхідно внести зміни в трактування самого поняття соціальної якості відповідно до її нематеріальних складових, пов’язаних із специфікою національної психіки та історичними особливостями, які найсильніше проявляються в умовах війни.

Who, or What, is Lost: Singapore’s Impressions of Christmas Island, c. 1960–1990

Abstract Although Singapore no longer governs Christmas Island, either on behalf of its British colonial administrators or for itself, some Singaporeans continue to regard it as a lost territory and have false impressions that it once belonged and should again belong to Singapore. By examining this complexity related to Christmas Island and its possible implications for Singapore’s national psyche, this paper surveys the newspapers of Singapore and oral history records of Singaporean ministers and officials for accounts of Christmas Island. It suggests that Singaporean newspapers’ portrayal of Christmas Island as a neglected Australian overseas territory contributed to some Singaporeans’ perception that Christmas Island might actually be better off with Singapore; others even had a misconception of Christmas Island as a lost territory. Such opinions have never really dissipated because the government has never publicly clarified the transfer of Christmas Island and rejected claims about its “sale” to Australia.

The Vanishing Archive

Documentarian and writer Atteyat al-Abnoudy was a fierce proponent of Egypt’s working class and marginalized communities. She carved indelible, haunting images onto the national psyche through her work, which is more prescient than ever. This essay explores the ways in which it is possible to understand and interpret Al Abnoudy’s work processes and filmic legacy within the context of Egypt’s lack of archival practices. The larger context of Egyptian documentary filmmaking and the impact of post-colonial practices on the arts and culture sphere also inform the article.

Starring Ricardo Darín: National Identity and Masculinity in Films by Juan José Campanella and Pablo Trapero

Ricardo Darín has become the somewhat unlikely middle-aged poster boy of Argentine cinema of the first quarter of the twenty-first century. In the Argentine context, this same period is marked by the economic crisis of 2001 and the celebrations of the country’s bicentenary in 2010, both of which raise important questions about national identity. This article will examine the films Darín made with Juan José Campanella and Pablo Trapero in order to consider the ways in which his star status is used as a way to reflect or comment upon certain questions that seem to occupy the national psyche and to engage with forms of masculinity, whether that be to represent them, reify them, or indeed do both simultaneously. In the four films he made with Campanella, Darín plays an affable middle-class man who is somehow an outsider. The fact that by the end of the films all four characters have found some closure and experience a sense of a new beginning attests to the strength of middle-class masculinity as an identity category. Both his characters die at the end of the two films with Trapero. These characters are also outsiders, but Trapero uses Darín’s star status to draw attention to broader social issues within Argentine society. Ultimately, both directors rely upon Darín’s off-screen persona to aid characterization and link their protagonists to national issues and questions of national identities.

THE ESSENCE OF SYMBOLIC IMAGES IN THE WORK OF THE UNIQUE POET, SKILLED TRANSLATOR RAUF PARFI

Introduction. The twentieth century is known to have been a period of great change and renewal in world literature. The social, political, and cultural reasons for this have been shown in many scientific works. It should be noted that in the last century, especially in poetry, there have been created rare works that speak of the fate of humanity, human suffering, deep content, deep philosophy. In particular, during this period, philosophical and intellectual lyricism about the eternal problems of the universe and man, life and death, war and peace, the fate of mankind, the essence of life was perfected. Research methods. In the process of drawing a number of poems of the poet into the analysis, the following were used: - to give an idea of the theoretical basis of the coloring of styles and shapes; - coverage of the issue of the lyrical hero in poetry; - attention to the national psyche of the lyrical hero; - interpretation of the poet's own characteristics in the application of poetic details, analytical images; - coverage of the expression of the theme of freedom and freedom in poetry; - to express opinions about the artistry of poet and to draw general conclusions and pay attention to the poet's poetry. Results and discussions. In world literary creation, it is becoming increasingly important and becoming increasingly urgent to develop. Consequently, the study of literal philosophical and intellectual direction is also important for humanitarian science, such as philosophy and psychology, not philology. Conclusion. Twentieth-century Uzbek poetry, even from the standpoint of world literature, is a very large, completely unique poetry; There are many masterpieces of lyrical masterpieces created all over the world. Chulpon's poetry with a social spirit, Osman Nasir's fiery writings, Ghafur Ghulam's deep philosophical poems, Oybek's thoughtful and quiet "pure" lyrics, Maqsud Shaykhzoda's beautiful poems, Mir-temir's folk poems, elegant lyrical melodies of Erkin Vahidov, poems of wisdom by Abdulla Aripov, modern poetry of Rauf Parfi, poetic world of Omon Matjon rich in historical symbols, courageous poems of Shavkat Rahmon are proof of our opinion. The above-mentioned poets made a great contribution to the formation, development and perfection of the new Uzbek poetry.

A LOOK AT THE LIFE PATH OF FATTOKHON MAMADALIEV

The article tells about the life and work of Fattokhon Mamadaliev, an Uzbek People's Artist, known for his fruitful works and performances. Folk art is a huge and enormous world . It is constantly enriched with the products of the creative people and is constantly expanding. After all, every specimen in this ocean is explained by its own mysteries, national traditions, national psyche and national values. This is the main basis for the formation and development of Uzbek national music and literature. When we look at our past, we can see that it occupies a light-scattering place, how ancient the art of music is, it is a golden treasure in the lives of our ancestors, in the lives of world-renowned scientists, thinkers and scientists, in the lives of the most advanced people of their time, in their immortal creativity, research and vision.