Historical Reality Research Articles

UNESCO heritage, remembrance, and contemporary identity: festivities of Jewish culture in small towns in the Czech Republic

ABSTRACT Třebíč is the only Czech town, but one of several in the world, to have its Jewish quarter separately listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. For more than twenty years, this small town has held not one but two events related to Jewish culture: Shamayim Jewish Culture Festival and Jewish Town Revived, a cultural and historical festivity. Based on long-term and repeated fieldwork from 2017 to the present, the article explains how the acquisition of the UNESCO World Heritage status of the local Jewish quarter determined the reinterpretation and appropriation of the tangible monuments and immaterial references to Jewish culture from a more or less tolerated and dilapidated relic of the past into an essential and prestigious identity marker of today’s completely non-Jewish Třebíč. What elements other than Jewish material cultural heritage do the Třebíč festivities refer to, and how do today’s music/dance/theatre performers – who are overwhelmingly non-Jewish – present them? How do the festivities relate to the local Jewish past and where are the limits of imagination and reference to historical realia? What other purposes do the festivities serve today and how do they affect the revitalization of the quarter?

Allegorization of History in Burial at Sea

The paper titled “Allegorization of History in Burial at Sea” investigates Khushwant Singh's novel as an allegorized history of post-independent India. Published in 2005, Singh's narrative intertwines the lives of fictional characters with historical figures. Using a combination of textual analysis and historical data, this study examines how Singh's portrayal of these characters serves as an allegorical representation of broader historical narratives. By analyzing the allegorical elements within the novel, the study reveals how Singh's fictionalization serves to critique the idealized images of prominent historical figures, such as Jawaharlal Nehru, and the socio-political dynamics of their time. The findings suggest that Singh's work offers a complex re-interpretation of historical events and figures, highlighting the intersection of fiction and history. The significance of this study lies in its contribution to the discourse on the allegorical nature of historical fiction. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of how fictional works can reshape our perceptions of historical reality.

Contesting ‘Truth’: A Late Ottoman Response to Protestant Missionary Writings

This study delves into the polemical exchange between the 19th-century Ottoman scholar Harputlu İshak Hoca (d. 1892) and the protestant missionary Karl Gottlieb Pfander (d. 1865). By examining the historical context surrounding their controversy, this research sheds light on the interaction between the Ottoman state and British and American missionaries, particularly during the expansion of missionary activities in Anatolia. This paper also explores the responses of the Ottoman authorities to the missionary printing activities and the impact of the Church Missionary Society’s work on societal and governmental levels. Furthermore, it provides an analysis of Pfander’s Mizan ul-haqq (The Balance of Truth) and Harputlu’s Şemsü’l-hakîkat (The Sun of Truth) and Ziyâü’l-kulûb (The Light of Hearts), portraying them as not only engaging in interreligious polemics but also as creators of textual products that reflect the complex historical realities of their time. This research underscores the Ottoman scholars’ close attention and prompt responses to missionary literature.

Video Essay about Cinema: Ways of Representing and Interpreting Dominant Content in a Polycode Media Text The object of research in the article was video essays

The object of research in the article was video essays published on the KinoPoisk YouTube channel. A multi-stage methodology for studying polycode media text was proposed, which is characterized by a system of applied techniques: genre, structural-semantic, conceptual analysis of media text; methodology for analyzing the polycode structure of a media text. Using the example of the analysis of the video essay «Why One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a Great Cinema», the constitutive genre features of the media genre, which are determined by the content dominants of the media text, are highlighted: title/title (sometimes subtitle) of the video essay; the compositional division of the video essay into parts, which are also given headings – this structure organizes the narrative of the video essay; description (annotation) of the video and time codes where the headings of the parts are written; movie quotes (visuals); fragments of the original soundtrack of the quoted films; musical accompaniment of video essay; semantically and stylistically complicated voice-over text (with the obligatory use of intertextual signs of various types); specific installation. The multi-level semantic structure of the video essay was studied and it was concluded that the content dominant of the video essay being studied is the concept of «Freedom» – one of the basic linguocultural concepts of the Russian language picture of the world. It has been established that the leading code through which the dominant content of a video essay is interpreted is verbal, supported and reinforced by other codes and subcodes of the polycode structure of the media genre. The analysis of the media text allows us to conclude that the author’s selection of film works, interpretation and interpretation of their content dominants, the tone of the discussion, «fitting» the film into the historical and cultural context, objectification of the value system of the collective author allows one to effectively influence the worldview of the mass addressee, forming and/or reframing his ideas about key ethical and cultural concepts, about historical and modern realities and events.

Maya Angelou’s Selected Poems: A Reflection on Racism and Segregation

This paper focuses on the issues of racism and segregation in Maya Angelou’s selected poems. As an African American, Maya Angelou in her poems and autobiographical novels demonstrates the historical, social and economic condition of her community, especially till the 1970’s. To argue on these grounds, power structure between the white and the black, or African American is also important to discuss. In this paper, six poems of Maya Angelou which are “Still I Rise”, “Caged Bird”, “Alone”, “Harlem Hopscotch”, “Phenomenal Woman” and “My Guilt” will be discussed and analyzed to discover and rediscover the themes of racism and segregation. So, this paper examines the historical reality of Maya Angelou’s community, important features, facts and information found in her poetry, along with the way of segregation in a racist society. Simultaneously, this paper explores the socio-economic context of the blacks as a base for racism and segregation and the apparent mentions of racism and segregation in Maya Angelou’s poems.

The Crucible and the Production of Fear in the Contemporary World: The Future and Persistence in Culture

Abstract Although Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible (1953) was written centuries after (‘post’) the events in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, it was through this play that we could relate to those events. In this sense, the play was ‘before’ (pre-) the past itself. The dynamic of preposterousness serves, I argue, to work through the past from the viewpoint of the present. The play, then, does not capture or describe a historical reality, but, in its relation to the past, it serves as an analysis not unlike psychoanalysis, as a ‘working through.’ Consequently, the things of the past are not ‘past.’ They are alive in an enacted or dramatized past, and they need to be relived for the purpose of a cure. The Crucible is self-consciously ‘presentist’ or contemporary and not historical in the conventional sense of the term, as Mieke Bal argues. According to the Dutch theorist, the past is present in the present in the form of ‘traces,’ not ‘influences’ (Bal, “Memories in the Museum” 179). However, as we saw in the US during the congressional anti-Communist hearings in the 1950s, such a cure does not materialize at the level of the play’s contemporaneous present, at least not at a collective level.

Bacurau

When released in theatres, Bacurau sparked a massive controversy due to its graphic depiction of violence and its alleged connection to Brazil’s socio-political climate, marked in recent years by profound political polarisation and cultural wars. This article explores an often-overlooked aspect of the film: the use of humour and its articulation with horror and science fiction imaginations. Our argument is that humour plays a key role in Bacurau, establishing connections between speculative fiction and historical reality, which underpins the film’s political work. We look at the significant attention that the interactions between humour, horror, and science fiction have received in Brazilian cinema produced over the last decade, and we conduct a detailed analysis of the use of humour in Bacurau, one of the most prominent films produced in the country during this period. We seek to understand how the interweaving of humour and speculative fiction is employed in the film, and if it is used to address controversial issues such as identity politics, racism, regionalism, and colonial legacies. We also investigate the extent to which this unconventional combination serves as a strategic tool for engaging with Brazil’s contemporary landscape of social and political unrest.

Феноменология сегодня: исторические проблемы и современные тенденции. Возвращаясь к дискуссии 1988 года (материалы «круглого стола»)

In April 2024, a round table titled “Phenomenology Today: Historical Problems and Contemporary Trends. Returning to the 1988 Discussion” was held, dedicated to discussing current problems in phenomenological research in the context of the historical development of phenomenology in the 21st century. The round table was organized by the journal “Voprosy Filosofii”, the Center for Phenomeno­logical Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy of RSUH, as well as participants in the Russian Science Foundation project “World, Language, Reality: European and Russian Philosophy in Conceptual and Terminological Dimensions”. Leading phenomenologists, historians of philosophy, and epistemologists participated in the round table. The focus was on the materials of the discussion “Phenomeno­logy and Its Role in Contemporary Philosophy” (Voprosy filosofii, 1988, No. 12). The following topics were discussed: How can the past 36 years in the global and domestic phenomenological movement be assessed? How has the subject configur­ation of phenomenology as a field of study changed? What are the directions of contemporary phenomenological discussions, the specifics of the phenomenolo­gical method and the limits of phenomenological description. Can it be said that the phenomenological method is applied today in the humanities and natural sci­ences, and if so, how effective is it? What is happening today in phenomenology, and what are the current discussions? Phenomenology and analytic philosophy: prospects and possibilities for comparison. The role of phenomenology in the for­mation of epistemological and ontological traditions in Russian philosophy. What has changed in this field over 36 years? The core of the discussions, sparked by the questions posed, became the problem of the relationship between historical reality and the language of philosophy, as well as the understanding of the value of phenomenological strategies in education and scientific activities

FORMAL AND STYLISTIC COMPONENTS OF M.O. AUEZOV'S EPIC NOVEL"THE PATH OF ABAI"

The ancient epic tradition significantly influenced the formation of the modern Kazakh literary language. It has become the main base of modern philosophy, literature and aesthetics. But in that literary era, when the great novel by M.O. Auezov was being created, they did not write about the epic tradition –the bearer of healthy moral principles –and especially about the zhyrau tradition, attaching a label to it –"idealization of the khan's past and patriarchal-Bay reality." It is for this rea-son that the term zhyrau is not mentioned in the epic novel. This image has not been recreated due to the historical reality of the New Time, the time of Abai, when the Zhyrau descended from the historical arena, although the writer's artistic logic allows us to trace the immortal oral-literary con-tinuity of the traditions of the previous era by the akyns. Today we call this phenomenon Steppe Knowledge.Despite their special status, their distinctive social functions, their worldview and ways of inter-preting reality, both Zhyrau and akyns go back to the same source, the ancient oral foundation, from where they draw rhythms, plots, motifs, themes and images, means of artistic expression and depic-tion, what we now call «the formulaic style»at the suggestion of epicologists M. Parry and A.B. Lord.Since this mighty stylistic technique of Zhyrau is still traced in the works of the akyns of the Abai epoch and it manifests itself with special force in the works of the most talented akyns of the New Time, then the formulaic law that forms the language and style, the entire formulaic aesthetics of the poets of the New Time, should be studied in a comparative aspect. This is the main purpose of article.

The Image of Kunanbay: the Harmony of Artistic and Historical Reality

The Image of Kunanbay: the Harmony of Artistic and Historical Reality

Morocco, at the Heart of the Harmonization of the African Union's Migration Policies: Context, Complexity, Diversity, Effects and Challenges

Since the mid-1980s, the European Union has adopted a cautious attitude to migratory flows. It has constantly stepped up initiatives to combat immigration, by tightening border controls and reducing the granting of visas, thereby forcing would-be emigrants to look for alternatives. At the same time, Africa is facing unique migration challenges. The consequences of colonization, the imposition of capitalist relations and the development of an extroverted economy, among others, continue to influence current migration dynamics. Persistent economic crises, exacerbated by inequitable global economic policies, are driving many people to seek better opportunities elsewhere. In addition, the effects of climate change, such as desertification, droughts and floods, are intensifying migratory pressures. African countries therefore need to develop effective migration policies to govern migratory flows and respond to geopolitical challenges. It is crucial to put in place regional and international cooperation mechanisms to manage migration in a coordinated and humane manner. This means thinking carefully about migration issues, considering the historical, economic and political realities that shape them. This issue must be at the heart of the concerns of States and the African Union. It is true that attempts are being made at continental level, such as the Kampala Convention and the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), but these measures can only be truly appreciated if they are applied on the ground.

Нужен ли философской антропологии «социогенетический поворот»?

Philosophical anthropology, which arose each time in a specific historical reality, sought to create a universal image of man, calling this process the revelation of his essence. This problem was solved by Russian philosophy, which developed the Orthodox Christian tradition within certain historical boundaries. Modern philosophy, solving this problem, cannot ignore the basic philosophical and anthropological ideas of different civilizations, primarily Eastern, Western and Russian philosophy. The space for their comparison and synthesis can be the semantic conceptual field of sociogenesis, which opens up a universal approach to the formation of a human being as a global cultural and biological species. The sociogenetic approach reveals the opportunity to compare two main essential models of man, which are represented by the version of the self-sufficient individual, which developed in the European Enlightenment, and the version of the conciliar (communal) man, the discussion of which began in Russian philosophy of the 19th century. In the context of sociogenesis, the basis for distinguishing anthropological versions is the opposition of individualistic and communal (conciliar) principles of behavior. A specifi c synthesis of these principles in one or another cultural-historical model appears as a solution to the contradiction between the individual and species model of behavior within the cultural-biological species “human being”. In the natural world, the coordination of individual and species behavior is resolved through the genetic inheritance of species behavior, eliminating the conflict between species and individual. The sociogenetic evolution of a human being has posed the task of searching for species-specifi c universal principles of behavior, which has complicated the solution of the problem of harmonizing species and individual behavior. The complexity of the situation is that human behavior is directed by cultural programs in the context of a sociogenetic search for a species program capable of ensuring the global consolidation of the human species. In this context, philosophical anthropology requires a sociogenetic support, and the appeal to it can be called the “sociogenetic turn” in philosophical anthropology.

Linking the natural man to the res publica in the works of Marcus Tullius Cicero

AbstractThere is no consensus on the importance of Cicero's doctrine of the state (res publica) among the prominent figures and scholars of political theory. In our view, the main reason for this is that the discussion of the political theoretical insights of the corpus Ciceronianum is too often reduced to a repetition of stereotypes. Cicero's key works on political doctrine, such as the De oratore, the De re publica and the De officiis, are mostly analysed from a philosophical point of view, with historical and legal aspects being put to one side. The characteristics of the mixed constitution (mikte politeia), which is at the heart of Cicero's theory of the res publica, are only superficially examined. What is also mostly overlooked is the extremely significant fact that in the De re publica Cicero (unlike Plato, for example) not only develops a philosophically grounded theory of the state, the res publica, but also applies his theory to finding the state, and in particular its ideal form, the optimus status civitatis, in the historical reality of Rome, that is, his own state. In this way, Cicero connects ratio and res, thus establishing the harmony and, indeed, unity of idea and history. The value of this important idea is not in the least affected by the fact that Cicero was undoubtedly an eclectic thinker rather than a consistent exponent of the views of any school or current. That, it seems to us, helped him greatly to lay the foundations of a doctrine of the state that could influence political thought centuries, even millennia, later, up to the political thought of the first decades of the 21st century.

Sports Narratives and Historical Nationalism: Re-Visiting the Context and Use of Field Hockey in Chak De! India

Indian cinema is known for its dramatic narratives that celebrate emotionally elevated visual spectacles through which people from different sociocultural backgrounds come across popular domains of cultural practices, social norms and historical realities that unify them. Field hockey belongs to the popular realm of sports in India which is part of the country’s national identity. India’s participation and success in field hockey at the Olympic Games make it one of the country’s most successful international sports. Indian film narratives about field hockey help to create public discourse about how the sport has historically played a role in shaping national pride and identity in India. Hockey evokes nationalism by symbolizing historical achievements, unity, and cultural identity, inspiring pride and patriotism through the portrayal of heroes, national symbols, and emotional narratives in media and public discourse. The film Chak De! India portrays Indian hockey as a patriotic unifying national narrative and as an empowering discourse that can upend traditional gender stereotypes. It delineates that hockey not only acts as a sports game for entertainment but is an indicator of nationalistic significance and cultural identity that elevates the emotional realm of Indians through the notion of patriotism.

‘I think you’d strike’: Interpreting Preston in The Strike

The literary aftermath of the Preston lock-out has been dominated by Charles Dickens’s Hard Times (1854) and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South (1854–1855). Far less well known is The Strike , an anonymous tale published in 1855 by the Oxford publishing firm John Henry Parker. This article explores the relationships between The Strike and the ‘industrial novel’ (particularly Hard Times and North and South ) as well as comparing their respective handling of the historical reality of the Preston lock-out. It analyses the similarities and differences in the literary handling of the lock-out across all three texts and argues that, in terms of historical verisimilitude, The Strike generally demonstrates a greater degree of historical accuracy than either of its better-known counterparts. Additionally, it argues that the tale’s interest in co-operation suggests an author with Christian Socialist affiliations and, in its closing paragraphs, offers circumstantial evidence pointing to the Rev. Charles Marriott as a potential author of The Strike .

The Balkans or South-Eastern Europe: a new conceptualization of the spatial and political image of the region (late 20<sup>th</sup> – early 2<sup>st</sup> century)

The author analyzes the process of geospatial diversification of the traditional historical and cultural Balkan region in the national discourses of a number of Balkan countries. It is based on the search for a new identity in the context of a strengthening European political orientation and the desire to minimize the existing negative image of the Balkans, associated in the European political tradition with the phenomenon of «Balkanization». The formulation of the concept of a new broader political space of South-Eastern Europe, the definition of which appeared at the beginning of the 19th century, is accompanied by the discussions in both public and academic circles in the states of the region regarding the combination of traditional cultural and historical identity traits and strengthening the political component that determines the course towards a «return to Europe» as a way out of the so-called geo-historical Balkan impasse. The search for a «geographical alternative» in the modern Balkans has acquired the character of a sharply expressed contrast between the so-called traditional historical Balkan realities and the new trend of Europeanization of this region. At the same time, the Balkan self-identification continues to be preserved in the public narrative in a number of countries, and it is adjacent to the definition of South-Eastern Europe that is increasingly gaining strength and has a wider geographical scope. It is this that allows to emphasize the historical ties of the Balkan peoples and their states with neighboring countries located in the «border zone» between the so-called classical Europe and its virtual periphery.

Foucault’s Hegel Thesis: The “Tragic Destiny” of Life and the “Being-There” of Consciousness

In this paper, I offer an intellectual-historical reading of Foucault’s unpublished master’s thesis. In contrast with other recent scholarship on the pre-1961 period of Foucault’s career, the purpose of this paper is to grapple with the philosophical content of this thesis on its own terms, distinguishing it as far as possible from his mature work. This allows forgotten concepts to re-emerge in the course of reading the text and for a novel engagement with such neglected facets of Foucault’s oeuvre. Indeed, the key concept which I argue emerges from Foucault’s early thesis is that of language as the être-la of thought. By closely following Foucault’s Husserlian reading of Hegel, and his response to Eugen Fink’s paradoxes of phenomenology, it is possible to see how Foucault briefly lands upon a novel kind of scepticism about the reality of history and minds. In the same way, I will also show why Foucault was unable to fully develop or commit to these sceptical positions during this part of his career. The article concludes by briefly suggesting contrasts between my reading of this early text and the way Foucault’s oeuvre is more generally understood.

Monarchy and Its Role in Nation Building in Nepal: Unveiling Myths and Historical Realities

Monarchy and Its Role in Nation Building in Nepal: Unveiling Myths and Historical Realities

VISUAL AND ARTISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRAGEDY "NAJMIDDIN KUBRO" (ABOUT THE TRAGEDY OF AMON MATJON)

This article focuses on the bright examples of innovation and tradition in the tragedy "Najmiddin Kubro" by Amon Matjon. It is shown through analysis that along with the work of Alisher Navoi and the influence of folklore, the original image, plot and expressions of the poet are sufficiently manifested.Historical works of Amon Matjon can provide important facts and conclusions for studying the issue of historical interpretation in dramaturgy. In it, the poet tries to maintain a balance between historical reality and creative freedom. It was impossible not to reflect the spirit, ideology, and views of the time in the poet's historical works. At the same time, attention is paid to the fact that the artist was able to place his important socio-political thoughts and, importantly, opinions that are completelycontrary to the environment of his time, in the lines that reflect the ideology of the time and are adapted to it.

Abdelwahab Meddeb and Anour Majid: Revisiting The Muslim Heritage or Celebrating the Diversity of Islamic Tradition

This paper is a celebration of the diversity of Muslim thought and tradition, an invitation to revisit the Islamic legacy and rethink mainstream Muslim scholarship in the light of the plurality , multivoicedness and richness of the Muslim faith. It is incidentally a questioning of the inability of contemporary Islam to establish interfaith dialogue with kin monotheist religions, as well as a deep interrogation of our understanding of the creed and our praxis as believers in the third millenium, compelled as we stand, to adhere to the global spirit and meet the high stakes of modernity. This conandrum interpellates the Muslim community to reconsider the rigidity nay sterility of today’s Islam, championned by the growingly powerful fundamentalist movements thriving in’ Dar Al Islam’. Islam never had a Dante who summoned the intellectual audacity to make his writing address political events as they appeared in the reality of history. I dream of this genius that Islam did not create : he would have constituted the opposite of Ibn Taymiyya. ( Meddeb, 95)