Revisionist History Research Articles

Migration in Andrea Levy's Short Narratives

Bu makalenin amacı göçmenin öyküsünü Levy'nin “Back to My Own Country: An Essay” (Ülkeme Dönüş: Bir Deneme)'inde ve “The Diary” (Günlük) ve “That Polite Way That English People Have” (İngilizler'in Sahip Olduğu O Malum Kibar Tavır) başlıklı öyküleri odağında incelemektir. Levy'nin öyküleri otobiyografi, tarih, toplumsal eleştiri ve kurmacayı kaynaştırmaktadır. Göç olgusunun bazı olumlu yönlerinin yanı sıra olumsuz yanlarının da ortaya koyulduğu bu öykülerde göçmenin düşlediği peri masalıvari dünyanın yanında göçmen deneyiminin içerdiği ironiler göz önüne serilir. Söz konusu anlatılarda Levy, Karayipler'den İngiltere'ye göç eden ikinci-kuşak göçmen olarak kendi öyküsünü, Jamaica'lı ve siyahi-Britanya'lı kültürel mirasını, yaşadığı kimlik bunalımını ve ırksal farkındalık, ırkçılık, ve cinsiyetçi önyargıları ele alırken Atlantik köle ticareti, sömürgecilik ve Britanya İmparatorluğu, Karayipler'den göç eden Windrush kuşağı ve Britanya ve Karayiplerin ortak tarihi hakkındaki düşüncelerini ve bilgileri de sunmaktadır. Levy'nin amacının hem kişisel mirasını ve Karayipler'le Britanya'nın ortak mirasını açığa çıkarmak hem de tarihsel “unutkanlığa” bir derman olarak yapıtlarında tarihi yeniden yazmak olduğu söylenebilir. Yazarın “tersine göç” motifini kullanması bu amacını gerçekleştirmektedir. Nitekim, Britanya'lı Karayiplilerin öyküsünü marjinden merkeze taşıması, bir nevi geçmişin telafisi olarak görülebilir.

Um passado republicano para chamar de seu: a reescrita da história nacional pela geração 1870 da Faculdade de Direito de São Paulo (1870-1880)

The resurgence of republican propaganda in the 1870s in the Brazilian Empireinitiates an effort toward national history. This paper analyses the contribution ofrepublican students of São Paulo’s Law School to the work of republicanization of thepast, made on the basis of a reframing of historical characters and events that, accordingto their interpretation, showed the antiquity and legitimacy of their reform project forBrazil’s political structure. The rewriting of history from a republican point of view wasdone through propaganda-related newspaper articles and used theoretical assumptionsthat changed the way in which historical knowledge is built.

Staging the intimate-public camera: Wen Hui’s documentary practice with her third grandmother

ABSTRACTThis article highlights pioneering dancer, choreographer, and multi-media artist Wen Hui's unique contribution to Chinese independent cinema and first person documentary by analyzing her two films made with her ‘forgotten’ third grandmother. The close reading is grounded in her explorations in intermedia performance and documentary theater centered on body as archive of memory and women's experience. I argue that Listening to Third Grandmother and Dancing with the Third Grandma experiment with an intimate-public camera for constructing a female kinship outside the patriarchal family tree and re-writing women's history through oral storytelling and choreography of the everyday.

The Train and the Telegraph: A Revisionist History by Benjamin Sidney Michael Schwantes

Reviewed by: The Train and the Telegraph: A Revisionist History by Benjamin Sidney Michael Schwantes Edmund Russell (bio) The Train and the Telegraph: A Revisionist History By Benjamin Sidney Michael Schwantes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. Pp. 224. In 1876, to commemorate the first centenary of the United States, Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives published a lithograph, “The Progress of the Century.” At the center of the lithograph, a telegrapher with his machine; behind him, three uses of steam engines—to drive a printing press, a steamboat, and a train. The lithograph expressed several American beliefs: that technology powered progress, that telegraphs and steam engines were the most transformative technologies of the age, and that one of the most important uses of steam engines was railroads. Because Americans by 1876 were used to seeing telegraphs along railroad tracks, it is easy to assume that railroads and telegraphs immediately bonded. They had a lot to offer each other. Railroads could use telegraphs for business correspondence as well as train management. Telegraphs could build lines in railroad rights of way and have trains deliver construction and repair materials along the line. And because railroads and telegraphs transformed the way Americans did almost everything, from commerce to courtship, it is easy to think of them as a package. Together, Americans said in the nineteenth century, railroads and telegraphs annihilated time and space. Benjamin Schwantes argues that telegraphs and railroads eventually became partners, but it was a long time coming. In the 1830s and 1840s, American railroads had learned to manage trains safely on single tracks through rigid schedules. When telegraphs began spreading in the mid-1840s, railroad managers saw little use for them. They worried about the [End Page 992] danger and unreliability of poorly built telegraphs as poles along tracks rotted, fell, and wrecked trains. Railroad leaders saw no reason to trust that agents employed by telegraph companies would prioritize railroad telegrams over other business, and timeliness was everything when it came to managing trains on single tracks. Telegraphers liked the idea of building lines in railroad rights of way, and a few built lines along tracks before the Confederate Rebellion. They found, however, that railroads prioritized their own businesses, and sometimes damaged telegraphs. As long as the two technologies were owned by different firms, their interests pulled in different directions. War is a common matchmaker for organizations and technologies, and the Confederate Rebellion was no different. Having organized military railroads and telegraphs, civilian managers in both sectors discovered there was more room for cooperation than they had foreseen. After the rebellion, they transferred their new appreciation to private enterprises. Railroads increased their reliance on telegraphs, but the new managers often found this a frustrating experience. They hated transferring power—the ability to tell employees what to do—to telegraphers, especially those who worked for another company. Railroads reduced this problem after the 1870s by hiring their own telegraphers. Now managers and telegraphers worked for the same company, but the railroads shot themselves in the foot by treating telegraphers badly. Long hours and low pay were the rule. Telegraphers got their first jobs with the railroads, but, as soon as they had enough experience, they went to work for telegraph companies that offered better working conditions. Small wonder that railroads found their inexperienced telegraphers, who might stay with a railroad for only a few months, unreliable. Eventually railroad managers found a new tool to replace telegraphs and telegraphers—telephones. Now managers could talk to distant employees without relying on telegraphers as intermediaries. Railroad telegraphy declined. Schwantes does a fine job of explaining the complex, changing interaction between telegraphs and railroads. He builds his narrative on a deep foundation of research. The author is alive to the many interests at play in commerce, from enterprise-level (will the company benefit or suffer from adopting new technology?) to bureaucratic (will managers resent having to share power with telegraphers?). He charts the changes in the often-fraught relationship between railroads and telegraphs over time, until finally the railroads found a new partner, telephones. [End Page 993] Edmund Russell Edmund Russell is president of the American Society for Environmental History and the David M...

Writing After the "Poor Little Bomb": Fictionality and Sabotage in Nadine Gordimer's The Late Bourgeois World

The Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer's 1966 novel, The Late Bourgeois World was written in response to the demise of an underground organization of the early 1960s in South Africa, the African Resistance Movement (ARM). It tells the story of Max van den Sandt, whose political career is a failure and who chooses suicide, leaving his ex-wife Elizabeth mulling over their life together. In due course, Elizabeth has to discover her own future as an activist. The novel's treatment of the subject was modeled by Albert Camus's L'Etranger and its achievement is to create an austere, detached mode of address which demonstrates how, in South Africa's version of what Ernst Fischer called "the late bourgeois world," sabotage would come to be seen as an existential solution. The essay draws on historical and archival sources, including court records and censorship archives, to explore Gordimer's rewriting of history.

The Antifascist Roots of Presidential Administration

This Article uncovers the intellectual foundations of presidential administration and, on the basis of original archival research and new contextualization, grounds its legitimacy in the fight against fascism. It shows how the architects of presidential control of the administrative state reconciled a strong executive with democratic norms by embracing separation of powers in order to make the government responsible and antifascist. It then draws out the consequences of these overlooked developments for presidential administration today. The Article takes inspiration from the turn to history in Article II scholarship and jurisprudence. In search of legitimating foundations, champions of presidential administration have embraced the work of the New Deal-era President’s Committee on Administrative Management. While they have been right to focus on the Committee, they have misunderstood its program. This Article uses untapped sources and overlooked historical context to advance a new reading of the Committee’s report. It demonstrates that presidential administration was the culmination of a longstanding project to make democracy efficacious and accountable, showing how the New Dealers on the President’s Committee drew from and adapted an older Progressive Era tradition. At the heart of this story is a remarkable reversal: where Progressive Era reformers reject-ed formal constitutionalism and the principle of separation of powers, the New Dealers embraced both. This volte-face was connected to the need to empower the president while guarding against fascism. Anti-fascism thus became a core component of presidential administration, realized through checks on the executive and internal and external separation of powers. This revisionist history has three immediate consequences for contemporary law and legal scholarship. First, it raises a pair of challenges to the unitary theory of the executive. Second, it provides a historical and doctrinal foundation for the competing “internal separation of powers” school of Article II jurisprudence. And finally, it motivates an antifascist litmus test, which offers a new perspective on current debates about the fascism of the Trump presidency and can help assess recent proposals for executive branch reform.

The Defence and Evacuation of the Kuban Bridgehead, January -October 1943: examining a forgotten campaign in the German-Soviet War

This article examines the little-known battles fought by German and Soviet forces over the Kuban bridgehead on the north-eastern coast of the Black Sea from January to October 1943. The bridgehead formed when the German Seventeenth Army withdrew into the Taman Peninsula as Army Group A retreated from the Caucasus in the wake of the defeat at Stalingrad. Seventeenth Army held the position through the spring, summer and autumn of 1943, before withdrawing to the Crimea. The campaign can be viewed as an interesting microcosm of the entire German-Soviet war. Many of the events and trends of the wider war can be seen at a smaller scale in the Kuban: the seemingly unstoppable German advance that was halted against the odds in a shattered industrial area, and the gradual and often unsteady transformation of the Red Army from the chaos and catastrophe of the early period of the war to a skilfully led and professional fighting force, in parallel with the Wehrmacht’s gradual but inexorable decline in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The entire rationale for holding the bridgehead is an early example of Hitler’s inflexible and unrealistic strategic vision as the tide of war turned, and the campaign fell under post-war rewriting of history by the Soviet leadership to overstate the contributions of senior political figures and erase mistakes and defeats from the record. The campaign has been largely overlooked in the published English language history of the war. This article addresses that lack of attention, providing a detailed exploration of the campaign based on German and Russian sources to offer new insight and understanding of a rarely analysed part of the war.

Art and Form: From Roger Fry to Global Modernism by Sam Rose

Reviewed by: Art and Form: From Roger Fry to Global Modernism by Sam Rose Patrick Fessenbecker Art and Form: From Roger Fry to Global Modernism. Sam Rose. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019. Pp 224. $89.95 (cloth); $34.95 (paper). Sam Rose's compelling new book Art and Form begins with the observation that modernist formalism has suffered severe blows to its reputation since its heyday in Clement Greenberg's aesthetics, but argues that many of its critics have been attacking straw men. The supposed doxa of formalist aesthetics—that there is an autonomous realm of aesthetic experience, that this realm is radically separated from the world and available only to the sophisticated, and that a work of art is independent of its creator—have been long-standing targets of attack, and have often seemed like important and significant mistakes whose failures require significantly different accounts of the nature of art. But, Rose contends, when one looks back at key sources for modernist formalism, what one finds is that many of these issues were energetically present at the moment of its inception. Returning with this in mind to the central writers for the theory of artistic form in the years between 1910 and 1939, then, restores a sense of the real complexity of the history. But it does something more. In the book's most ambitious (and most tentative) claim, Rose contends that this restored history points towards a more plausible theory of the artwork: a modest or post-formalism, which "acknowledges at once both the end of grand modernist self-confidence and universality and the fact that the desire to do anything historical with objects will always require some… appeal to form" (152). Five pleasantly concise chapters present this revisionist history of formalism topically. The first chapter emphasizes Clive Bell and Roger Fry, and points out, in particular, the importance of connoisseurship for making sense of what Fry thought the formalist response to the work of art involved. Contrary to the assumption that modernist aesthetics ignored artistic intention, Rose contends that Fry's formalism depended on an extensive analysis of just that: interpretation required an imaginative grasp of the process of artistic creation. Chapter two addresses the question of what knowledge, exactly, is produced by formalist art [End Page 407] criticism and how this knowledge compares to scientific investigation; the chapter concludes provocatively by arguing that the postwar revival of aesthetics in analytic philosophy by writers like Nelson Goodman involved forgetting the complexity of earlier formalisms. Chapter three turns to the ethics and politics of formalism, observing the irony by which the informed and active kind of perception championed by Fry became the seed of the experience of mass consumer culture by later writers, and contends that the fusion of social criticism and formalist aesthetics in writers like Richard Wollheim should be understood not "as a move beyond early formalism so much as a development and exemplification of its ethical ideal" (97). Chapter four takes a slightly different tack, narrating formalism's encounter with "mass culture," which Rose portrays as a tension between the mechanized production inherent in "design" on the one hand and Marxist attempts to imagine a truly popular art on the other. The iterations of formalism in this chapter are uncertain, seemingly abandoned by Marxists but surprisingly maintained when such critics hesitated to affirm "mass taste under modern industrialized capitalism" (122). Finally, chapter five turns to the question of global modernism, discussing several artists from Nigeria and India as a way of developing a humbler formalism that neither privileges the artistic tradition of the West or assumes the universality of artistic experience but preserves the sense that formalism is a necessary part of historical interpretation. Rose's correction is a welcome one, restoring a fuller picture to an approach that is often easily caricatured, while keeping in mind a sense of its limitations. It is particularly sharp in pulling out the limitations of British conceptions of aesthetic education and their emphasis on individual and cultural authenticity when they were imported to the Empire, noting of Gerard Sekoto's use of postimpressionism in imperial South Africa that "[t]here could be no stronger indication of...

Greek Military Service in the Ancient Near East, 401–330 by Jeffrey Rop

Reviewed by: Greek Military Service in the Ancient Near East, 401–330 by Jeffrey Rop Matthew A. Sears Jeffrey Rop. Greek Military Service in the Ancient Near East, 401–330. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xxviii, 265. $99.99. ISBN 978-1-108-49950-7. Writing a revisionist history is a difficult task, especially for ancient historians. Almost always, the literary sources, such as we have, are entirely in the favor of the orthodox view of things, and old opinions die hard. In the volume under review, Rop sets himself just such a daunting job, to dismantle the notion that the Achaemenid Persian Empire ran into trouble in the 4th century largely because of its lack of heavy infantry and a related reliance on Greek mercenaries. Rop chalks this idea, which he calls "the Greek Thesis," up to self-serving Greek sources, who, through literary devices such as focalization, and motifs including the "Tragic Advisor" and the "Dynamic Subordinate," wildly overstate the importance of Greek soldiers to Persian (and Egyptian) armies, and understate the influence of Persia and other powers in the Greek world. Where Rop succeeds most is in forcing us anew to read the surviving Greek literary sources as they are: one-sided and biased. Rather than reassess the 4th-century history of Greco-Persian interactions by turning to sources such as Achaemenid literary and epigraphic records or the results of archaeological excavations of Achaemenid and Achaemenid-related sites, Rop takes a new look at the same Greek literary works on which ancient historians have traditionally relied. For example, to provide a new take on the Battle of Cunaxa in 401, in which the Ten Thousand Greeks fought for the rebel Persian prince Cyrus the Younger against his brother, King Artaxerxes II, Rop examines only the account of Xenophon's Anabasis. By reading between the lines, Rop suggests, we can spot where Xenophon distorts events in such a way as to make the Greeks appear more tactically dominant than they were, and the Persian infantry more vulnerable to hoplites than was really the case. Rop argues that, rather than the Greek hoplites in Cyrus' army causing the Persians arrayed against them so much fear that the Persians ran away, the Greeks were fooled by a well-executed feigned retreat that removed them from the battle's main action, in which Cyrus was killed. Artaxerxes is thus rehabilitated as a subtle tactician, and Cyrus' Greeks are revealed as hardly the decisive shock troops most students of history have thought them to be. Rop argues that Cyrus hired the Ten Thousand not because Greek hoplites were invincible on the battlefield, but because his Greek xenoi could be trusted far more than his Persian troops, all of whom quickly defected to Artaxerxes after the battle. Rop gives the rest of 4th-century Greco-Persian history, up to the death of Darius III, the same treatment. Diodorus Siculus is especially scrutinized as a biased source who focuses so much on the actions of Greeks in the armies of Persians and Egyptians that the far greater number of Persian and Egyptian troops, and their far more consequential actions, are virtually ignored. The reader of Diodorus and other ancient sources is therefore left with the impression that battles and entire campaigns were won and lost because of the actions and advice of Greek soldiers and generals. Rop concludes that 4th-century history does not show that Greek mercenaries were essential to the Persians, much to the latter's detriment, but rather that the Persian Empire continued to have tremendous influence in mainland Greece. Despite having very little to say about Persian and other non-Greek and non-literary sources, Rop adds many important arguments to the growing trend [End Page 240] of scrutinizing the biased—and sometimes deceptive—nature of ancient Greek historical writers. The Greeks were not uniformly strategic and tactical geniuses any more than the Persians were merely hubristic blunderers, and the interaction between the two peoples was far more nuanced than the most-read sources indicate. However, by analyzing just these same sources, Rop can offer only speculative alternative reconstructions of events and motivations. Rop's...

Kings as ‘Queens’—Textual and Visual Homophobic Fabrications of Two Polish Kings: The Curious Cases of Bolesław the Generous and Henry I of Poland

Polish historiography concerned with the lives of kings and queens has––as yet–– not been subjected to a major revaluation and re-interpretation from the point of view of gay and lesbian or queer studies. This is despite the fact that at least eight rulers in the course of Polish history have had their supposed heteronormativity contested. Given Polish historians’ general reluctance to address the issue of the rulers’ sexuality and––if indeed addressed––the homophobic entanglements that characterise the historical discourse, two cases appear to be particularly valid and illuminating: Boleslaw II the Generous (1042-1081) and Henry III of France (1551-1589)––known in Poland as Henry I. For centuries, the two rulers have been–– more than any other Polish king or queen––subjected to defamatory criticism. The issue of their sexuality has been deliberately used as a major instrument in creating their “black legend.” It is their sexuality––regardless of the “real” psycho-sexual identity of the two kings––that has played a major role in creating a homophobic fabrication of their image as evil and immoral rulers, the former being presented as the Sodomite “Murderer” King, the latter as the Sodomite “Traitor” King. This article investigates a history of textual and visual homophobic representations of both rulers, scrutinising not only traditional historical documents (such as chronicles and annals), but also a variety of literary sources from the period (poetry and lampoons) and images (prints, drawings, and murals). Special attention will be paid to the rulers’ conceptualisation as the antithesis of the “good king” trope, as well as to some contemporary attempts at re-claiming and re-writing traditional history within the framework of queer studies.

Breaking the Reputation of Female Rule in China: Daoism and the Rewriting of the History of the Reign of Wu Zhao (624-705)

AbstractUsurpation by a woman made the reign of Wu Zhao a problem in the history writing of the restored Tang dynasty (618-907; interregnum 690-705) and thereafter that has often attracted the epithet ‘Confucian’. An examination of the rewriting of history to change the meaning of two miracles reported during her reign – the appearance of a new (though small) mountain and of Laozi, supposed ancestor of the Tang imperial line – shows that among those keen to repurpose these events were later Daoists, who were engaged in a long term struggle with the Buddhists, the main beneficiaries of her rule. This suggests that we need a more nuanced approach than simply designating all retrospective criticism of her as ‘Confucian’, even if the ultimate origins of the attempts at historical revision are as yet hard to discern.

Toni Morrison’s Re-writing of History: Counter­writing of the Racist Practices of 1950s American Society in Home

Toni Morrison’s Re-writing of History: Counter­writing of the Racist Practices of 1950s American Society in Home

Quando la fantascienza è donna

Quando la fantascienza è donna

Danza and the Signifying Process in Rosario Ferré’s Maldito amor

Rosario Ferré’s 1986 novella Maldito amor takes its name from a famous Puerto Rican danza written toward the end of the 19th century by composer Juan Morel Campos, who had both African and Spanish heritage. This article explores the tradition of the danza, the significance of Ferré’s use and mirroring of Morel Campos’s danza in the narrative, as well as the signifying process she explores and manipulates in an effort to question official versions of Puerto Rican history. By using the composer’s danza as a subtext for the structure and themes of the novel, Maldito amor creates another set of signifiers for how we consider this traditional piece of music. The title of the novel also demonstrates the ambivalent attitudes that Puerto Ricans often have toward the ruling elite on the island itself: the bourgeoisie function as both hegemonic power but are also oppressed under that of the United States. By re-writing history via the “Maldito amor” danza, the novella recognizes the constant chain of signifiers that constitutes reality, and adds a new and subversive one to include in the chain of discourse surrounding Puerto Rican history and identity.

Dionne Espinoza, María Eugenia Cotera, and Maylei Blackwell, Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Activism and Feminism in the Movement Era (2018)

Reviewed by: Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Activism and Feminism in the Movement Era by Dionne Espinoza, María Eugenia Cotera, and Maylei Blackwell Bonnie Cox (bio) Dionne Espinoza, María Eugenia Cotera, and Maylei Blackwell, Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Activism and Feminism in the Movement Era. University of Texas Press, 2018. Pp. 488. Chicana Movidas is a ceremonial discovery of powerful women who, through varied and diverse acts of mobilization, excavated spaces for Chicanas to thrive before, during, and after the Chicano movement era. This collection of first-person accounts, critical investigations, and interviews paints a vivid, detailed, and deeply personal picture of how these Chicana activists fostered spaces to express their complex identities, fight for their unique concerns, and make social change. Curated by Dionne Espinoza, María Eugenia Cotera, and Maylei Blackwell, this anthology builds a web of critical Chicana figures who gave a voice to gender and sexuality issues that the Chicano and white feminist movements either missed or ignored. The book focuses on movidas as both "maneuvers" that female activists deployed, and their "active" and "engaged" state as they pursued their unique agenda in the Chicano movement. Through an intersectional praxis, Chicana Movidas unveils both subtle and grandiose acts that set Chicana feminism in motion, including mobilizing large groups at conferences, making political art, helping vecinas get on welfare, and expressing dissent to machismo-oriented husbands. Chicana Movidas successfully presents a revisionist history of the Chicano movement that pushes the work of Chicana activists "from the margins to the center" [End Page 209] (3). The book is organized into four sections: "Hallway Movidas," "Home-Making Movidas," "Movidas of Crossing," and "Memory Movidas." Each section contains five to six chapters by a diverse array of scholars, and illuminates different modes of Chicana feminist praxis that were pivotal to the movement but not necessarily recognized at the time. "Hallway Movidas" points to the important conversations, personal connections, and written modes of communication that Chicanas engaged in behind the scenes at national conferences and a Catholic Cursillo. It also includes a Maylei Blackwell interview of Gloria Anzaldúa in which she highlights the everyday labors of Anzaldúa and other women she came into contact with that eventually produced the landmark women of color feminist anthology, This Bridge Called My Back. "Home-Making Movidas" explores the most diverse range of themes, as it includes the stories of women who built Chicana feminist spaces through visual art, film, radio, and grassroots mobilization. In this section, Maylei Blackwell presents a thorough and inspiring analysis, "Women Who Make Their Own Worlds: The Life and Work of Ester Hernandez." Through biography, interviews, and artistic interpretation, Blackwell captures the artist's intimate journey in creating worlds that express her Chicana subjectivity and disrupt the fiction of binaries and dichotomies that often conceal locations of belonging to those who reside in gray and fluid spaces. This chapter illustrates the unique function that art can serve in activist movements. The section "Movidas of Crossing" presents some of the most concrete and practical activist tools in the anthology for building coalitions across different oppressed groups. Alejandra Marchevsky's "Forging a Brown-Black Movement: Chicana and African American Women Organizing for Welfare Rights in Los Angeles" demonstrates how Chicanas and African American women can unify as low-income women of color while also respecting and honoring their cultural differences. It gives a detailed look at the conflicts between the different racial groups and ultimately shows the importance of knowing when to allow the groups to separate to cultivate their collective cultural identities versus when to collaborate across groups to make significant social change. The final section, "Memory Movidas," uses reflective narrative to tap into a collective Chicana memory and chronicle modes of empowerment and resistance. For example, the anthology ends epically with Inés Hernandez-Avila's "Manifesto de Memoria: (Re)Living the Movement without Blinking," in which she uses prose and poetry to reflect on her experience traversing different cultural worlds while deeply investing herself in Chicana activism as a youth, student, and eventually, professor. She affirms the importance of profound self-reflection and heartfelt investigation in attaining a collective Chicana consciousness. Read from cover...

Globalizing community festivals: the case of the community festival in Wanwei, Guangxi, China

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to concern the community festival of a Jing minority village in the China–Vietnam border area. Since it was designated as a national-level Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2006, the festival has undergone many changes. The festival has steadily expanded and evolved, assuming characteristics of globalization. How is the globalized character of the Wanwei festival manifested? What are the forces behind the elevation of this local festival onto the register of national events and how did it turn into an event organized by the township? Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on the results of the author’s research on the culture of Kinh people in Wanwei from 2000 to the present. From the anthropological approach, the author mainly uses method of participant observation and in-depth interviews. The author has observed the Wanwei communal festival from 2000 to the present, interviewing about 40 villagers in Wanwei in depth, they can be leaders, intellectuals, civil servants, officials or working people. Findings The paper is a case study of the new aspect of globalization of a village festival. The author argues that globalization can lead to a spread of global flows but in this process of globalization, villagers also want to define the local identity, they reinvent the tradition, rewrite history, create new nuances for the gods with many different purposes. Practicing the current Wanwei village festival is a vivid example of globalization from below and the politics of tradition. Originality/value The paper adds a theoretical dimension to current globalization research. The paper also points out the political, economic and social dynamics that govern the transformation of a village festival in particular and the village culture in general in the border areas. The paper is a testament to the dynamism and flexibility of villagers when participating in the current globalization process.

Neighbourhood in transition: Exploring the Ottoman heritage of Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina

The presence of globalisation trends has resulted in an increasing demand for environments that pose unique cultural experiences. Consequently, resorting to preservation of traditional urban fabric and the rewriting of history, as forms of self-definition, is becoming a widespread practice. In this context, the study of traditional urban neighbourhoods is of particular significance since they could be read as historic artefacts — narratives grounded in once prevailing cultural, political and social discourses. The case study presented and evaluated in this paper aims to produce a comprehensive understanding of the urban neighbourhood — mahala — established by the Ottomans in the 15th century in the city of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Contrary to the traditional mahala, as a well-established neighbourhood model, changes that occurred in the last decade have drastically altered the urban pattern of this residential settlement. It is from this perspective that the paper contributes to the debate on sustainable development of urban neighbourhoods. Through examination of the inner dynamics of mahalas, the paper calls for the establishment of novel understanding of the role of tradition and heritage in the creation of contemporary social and spatial relationships. Finally, it discusses the value of an inherited neighbourhood by offering future directions and measures, which could be launched in order to sustain the mahala’s transformation towards a sustainable residential neighbourhood model.

The Pragmatist Turn: Religion, the Enlightenment, and the Formation of American Literature

The Pragmatist Turn: Religion, the Enlightenment, and the Formation of American Literature

Cultural Identity in Black Subjects: the Emergence of New Black Subjects in Beloved

Rewriting history has fallen into a grip of obsession among post-colonial writers. The significance of history and past in post-colonial discussion stems from the fact that having a history constitutes an undeniable source for having a legitimate existence. Toni Morrison has contributed substantially to the current engagement of black writers in their effort to recuperate the true history of the black people. Her main concern for recovering the black history dominates her literary oeuvre. Beloved as a historical novel exploring a plethora of issues, among which identity, black subjectivity and redefinition of the self during and after the actualities of slavery is the focus of this study. The “loss of identity” as one of the ramification of “dislocation” and “dispossession” is one issue that has been interwoven in lines of Beloved. In addition, the post-colonial view of identity as subject to formation and transformation, refuting the European discourse of individuality, is another point of investigation in this study.

Do estrangeiro ao migrante — aspectos para um estudo da tradução como possível paradigma de pensamento na pós-modernidade

O presente estudo parte da viragem do discurso e da epistemologia modernistas para a pós-modernidade. Trata-se de destacar alguns aspectos centrais da proximidade entre o pensamento filosófico pós-moderno e a tradutologia hermenêutica actual visando a tradução como uma possível episteme da pós-modernidade, na qual as noções estáticas do original ou do autêntico, do outro ou do estrangeiro já foram substituídas por noções mais dinâmicas como o “text traductif” (Nouss) e o migrante/a migração. Com base em perspectivas filosóficas propostas por Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Welsch e Nouss, propor-se-á: a) uma perspectiva da tradução como exemplarmente pós-moderna na sua capacidade de reescrever criticamente a história, as ideologias e os sistemas, como um processo tanto ético como estético, tanto universal como local, tanto psicológico como sociológico; e b) a paratradução como o respectivo espaço inter-relacionado de um pensamento crítico, meta-tradutivo e transdiscursivo.