Symbolic Break Research Articles

Victorian Beauty…1945–1955

This article examines the reworking of Victorian beauty in the visual culture of post-war Britain. Although the work of post-war modernization and reconstruction was regarded as a symbolic break with the nineteenth-century past, the Victorian age continued to haunt the nation in the years following the end of the war, generating its own distinctive fascination and beauty. Focusing on an historical melodrama, Pink String and Sealing Wax (UK; dir. Robert Hamer, 1945), the article examines the narrative and its star, Googie Withers, in order to examine the role, meaning, and appeal of Victorianism and Victorian beauty in the post-war years.

Postsoviet “ambivalence of consciousness” of the Ukrainian youth (based on the poll “Soviet past and its impact upon the life of contemporary youth”)

In September – November 2021, the project team “Soviet Past: (Re)thinking of History” conducted an online-poll for school youth of 14-18 year-old under the common title “Soviet Past and Its Impact upon the Life of Contemporary Youth.” This was one of the first polls focused on the views and understandings of the youngest Ukrainian citizens.This article examines the poll results within a broader context of ongoing discussions about the impact of the Soviet past upon the life of contemporary Ukrainians and about the phenomenon of “post-Sovietness” on the territories of the former Soviet Union. The poll was conducted on the eve of the Russo-Ukrainian war, which broke on February 24, 2022. It therefore fixed those behavioral patterns and value orientations of the so-called “generation of Ukrainian independence” that are defined as “ambivalent” by sociologists: they simultaneously testify to the declarative break of the Ukrainian youth with the Soviet past and this past’s continuing impact upon its present.The Russo-Ukrainian war will undeniably impact Ukrainians’ attitude towards the Soviet past. It will most probably cause a complete and final symbolic break with this past, especially at the level of policy making and public presentation. Still, as the author argues, we cannot determine at the moment its deeper impact upon personal perceptions, value orientations, and behavioral models of Ukrainians, including of the youngest ones, which are analyzed in this article.

Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Addiction and Enjoyment

This article discusses how decentered understandings of addiction might benefit from ongoing debates in Lacanian psychoanalysis. Departing from recent critiques in critical addiction studies, it claims that psychoanalysis offers a framework that both challenges abstract, essentialist ontologies and recognises addiction as a valid phenomenon. Crucial to this framework is a notion of freedom linked to the symbolic break with bodily enjoyment, which, according to Lacan, lies at the origin of the constitution of subjectivity and which neither presupposes the existence of a conscious will nor rejects freedom as a mere product of abstract bio-political governmentality. The article explores how, in Lacanian psychoanalysis, addiction is seen as a way of denying this freedom through the realisation of an enjoyment independent of the symbolic order. Moreover, the article argues that its definition of addiction allows for both a decentered understanding of addiction and a critical challenging of current societal processes of addictification.

Ferula świętego papieża Pawła VI – innowacja i symbol tradycji

Among the topics of the Second Vatican Council were issues related to art. Pope Paul VI wanted contemporary art to open up to a new post-Conciliar era in the history of the Church. Artistic events and the works of modern art themselves, under the patronage of the Pope, in conservative environments, provoked discussions on contemporary religious art, and even the lack of consent for artists to depart from accepted canons of art. Perhaps the greatest opposition of conservatives was caused by the papal ferula, a centuries-old sign of the pope’s religious authority given by God. Paul VI ordered a new ferule from the sculptor Lello Scorzelli. Paul’s VI ferule is an example of a work of modern art, but the symbolism contained in it refers to the old tradition. The arrangement of the tormented, elongated body of Christ refers to medieval doloristic crucifixions – painful crosses. Christ on the ferule was crucified on the Tree of Life, which symbolically gives food to life for Christians. The form of a bent, not straight cross beam was also taken from the period of medieval art. It was a symbolic break with the statement that the pope’s authority came from God. At the same time, he symbolically stated the pope’s obedience to the mystery of the cross and his apostolic mission. Ferule St. Pope Paul VI in his apostolic mission used Popes: John Paul I, and the longest St. John Paul II.

Interpretation of the Constitutional provisions relating to international law

The 1993 Constitution,1 for the first time in South African history accorded constitutional recognition to international law, thereby bringing an end to the debate on the status of international law in South African domestic law. This step was a symbolic break from the apartheid legal system, which was closely associated with the violation of international law and indicated to the international community that South Africa was willing to abide by internationally accepted rules. More important, however, for South African lawyers are the fundamental changes the constitutional regulation of international law introduced into South African law.
 
 The 1993 Constitution dealt with the conclusion of international agreements (sections 82(1)(i) and 231(2)), the status of international law in South African law (section 231(3) and (4)) and the role of international law in interpreting the chapter on fundamental rights (section 35(1)). These provisions were substantially taken over by the 1996 Constitution. The provisions relating to the entry into international agreements and the status thereof in terms of South African law are once again dealt with under section 231. The provisions on customary international law are dealt with separately under section 232. Section 233 deals with the role of international law in the interpretation of legislation, whilst section 39, the equivalent of section 35 of the 1993 Constitution, provides for international law in interpreting the Bill of Rights.

The Present Through the Past: Polish Presidents and the Post-Communist Debate, 1989–2010

I argue that the category of post-communism, though fuzzy in meaning and theoretically unrefined, did mark an essential point of dispute (albeit symbolic) in the democratization period of the Polish political system between 1989–2010. The dispute over post-communism in Poland was initially conditioned mainly by ideological divisions (first half of the 1990s) and later by a ‘competition of power’ (especially from 2000). The specific role played by the presidents in the debate over the communist past and post-communist reality of Poland resulted from his insufficiently defined position in the political system, as well as from the fact that up to 2010 the presidency was held by key actors on the political scene. The results of the 2010 presidential elections as well as the progress of democratization showed that the potential for debating about post-communism was being exhausted. The elections can therefore be seen as a symbolic break, marking the end of post-communism.

Youngstown's ‘Ghost’? Memory, Identity, and Deindustrialization

AbstractThis article considers the highly contested and contradictory uses of the industrial past that continue to animate questions of place-based identity in the wake of large-scale deindustrialization. Drawing on media accounts as well as qualitative interviews with city residents, the representations surrounding Youngstown, Ohio's former middleweight boxing champion, Kelly Pavlik, and his asserted relationships to the city are considered. It is argued that through the various depictions of Pavlik, we see how deindustrialization has led to a more complex interaction of space and time—rather than marking a material and symbolic break from the era in which heavy industry dominated the city and its sense of identity—as aspects of the past are alternately disavowed, recovered, rearticulated, and reconstructed in relation to shifting economic, social, and cultural contexts.

‘Any Dark Saying’: Louis MacNeice in the Nineteen Fifties

The contours of Louis MacNeice's career are rarely contested: from the high point of his nineteen thirties work, reaching a crescendo with Autumn Journal (1939), he drifted into a slump, reaching a nadir with two collections from the early nineteen fifties, Ten Burnt Offerings (1952) and Autumn Sequel (1954), before reviving to develop a startling new style at the end of the decade. The historical moment clearly demanded stylistic renegotiation, both for poets living in Ireland and those outside it, but in comparison with the new styles developed coterminously by Clarke and Kavanagh, MacNeice's late work is stark, suggestive of nightmarish solipsism and a breakdown of social cohesion. If the failure of his volumes from the early Fifties suggested a symbolic break between self and society, his subsequent inward turn affirms the self as the ground of lyric poetry. MacNeice's late work should be understood as symptomatic of an encroaching dissolution of communality that would profoundly affect the cultures of both islands as the twentieth century progressed. This essay explores MacNeice's stylistic evolution at mid century and considers the extent to which these developments were an essential foundation for the creation of his remarkable late style.

Denied, deferred, triumphant? Climate change, carbon trading and the Greens in the Australian federal election of 21 August 2010

In November 2007, the Labor party won a convincing victory and, in a symbolic break with the past, the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, immediately announced his government's intention to sign the K...

The Temporalit(ies) of European Cross‐Border Governance: Euregios and the Problem of Sens

Writing against the grain of historical‐materialist as well as social‐constructivist accounts of cross‐border networking within the European Union, the author draws on a stream of French geopolitical writing so as to craft an alternative conceptual lens for understanding the possibilities and constraints of cross‐border governance in Europe today. Informed by phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches, this work attempts to reinsert time as a key analytical variable in grasping the intensity and direction of change and possibilities for novel territorial alignments brought about by recent shifts in the structure and flow of world power. Within this largely Francophone tradition, the challenge thrown up by globalization is framed not so much in political economic terms but fundamentally as a problem of meaning (or, sens), experienced in the dilemma of adequately interpreting the temporal and symbolic break brought on by the end of the Cold War and the demise of all forward‐looking ideologies which draw on its Enlightenment legacy. Borders, it is argued, and particularly cross‐border regions, are the privileged sites from which to observe the development of this problematic, as today sovereignty must be stretched across political boundary lines in order for national sovereignty to survive. Through the key concepts of ‘event,’ ‘irreversibility’ and ‘coherence,’ the author attempts to convey a poetics onto the transnational dimension of cross‐border regions that would in turn provide conditions of accessibility linked to their temporal dynamics. Applying such concepts to the cases of Northern Ireland, the EUROREGION Kent/Nord‐Pas‐de‐Calais and Central and Eastern Europe (notably Poland), the author explores the degree to which the emergence of cross‐border regions in Europe today can achieve the status of ‘events’ generating their own spatiotemporal legitimacies.

Partnership agreement makes waves at Shields Shiprepairers

When UK firm Shields Shiprepairers signed a formal social‐partnership agreement with trade‐union officials in 2000, the move represented a symbolic break from conflicts of the past and a rebranding of employee relations which, it was hoped, would act as a selling point in a competitive market. The accord, which was designed to enhance job security, received significant coverage in the business press, especially as it was signed at 10 Downing Street, witnessed by the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

History, Europe and the “National Idea”: The “Official” Narrative of National Identity in Ukraine

The demise of the Soviet Union entailed a reconfiguration of the political space and a reforging of collective identities within the boundaries of the new successor states. In the view of Anthony Smith, this was inevitable: “the rediscovery of the national self is not an academic matter, it is a pressing practical issue, vexed, and contentious, which spells life or death for the nationalist project of creating a nation.” Defining the national “self not only accomplishes a symbolic break with the previous political community but also sets out the parameters of statehood with regard to language and minority rights. However, even if the newness of the polity precipitates ”the definition, creation, and solidarification of a viable collective identity,“ this can be anything but straightforward. New states dwell on particularism, that is they look to ”local mores, established institutions, and the unities of common experience—to ‘tradition,’ ‘culture,’ ‘national character,’ or even ‘race’ for the roots of a new identity.“ And yet defining the national particularism may be fraught with inherent difficulties because, as Geertz observed, ”new states tend to be bundles of competing traditions gathered accidentally into concocted political frameworks rather than organically evolving civilizations.“

Confronting the Past: Justice After Transitions

Confronting the PastJustice After Transitions Jamal Benomar (bio) In many ways, human rights have been at the center of the democratic revolution that has touched every part of the globe over the last few years. Although the democratic tide has run very strong, emerging democracies still face formidable challenges in establishing the rule of law and creating solid guarantees for human rights. These democratic governments often are successors to dictatorial regimes that practiced such gross human rights abuses as extrajudicial executions, "disappearances," systematic torture, and secret detention. The problem facing these newly democratized countries is how to treat those who were guilty of perpetrating such abuses under the old regime. The difficulty lies in achieving a just solution that is acceptable to a longsuffering population and that steers clear of both witchhunts and whitewashes. However poignant the victims' demand for justice might be, decision makers must still weigh the risks of starting a process that could frighten the military or other forces linked to the old order enough to jeopardize the democratic transition. The issue is an old one that haunts all emerging democracies. In January 1793, the French parliament spent three agonizing days debating how to punish King Louis XVI before deciding to send him to the guillotine. Two hundred years later, similar debates continue to rage in many places. The death penalty has been abolished in almost all democracies, but democratic leaders still agonize as the French did at the end of the eighteenth century over what to do with their former rulers. As we will see from surveying the experiences of various governments who have dealt with this issue, there are no easy answers. [End Page 3] In countries such as Haiti and the Philippines, a de facto impunity has been institutionalized; human rights violations mount as members of the security forces come to believe that they are immune from prosecution. In other countries like Chile, the transition to democratic rule has been marred by the military's continuing grip on power and the resulting amnesty laws. Situations like this can cause rifts between newly elected governments and a citizenry still outraged at those responsible for past acts of official terrorism and repression. Elected leaders must sometimes make a hard choice between the survival of the democratization process and the principles on which they had based their campaign for a return to democratic rule. Retribution versus Reconciliation Advocates of retribution believe that failure to punish the perpetrators of past human rights abuses automatically condones these atrocious crimes, and therefore both constitutes an invitation to their repetition and undermines the rule of law. Proponents of this view, who tend to be human rights activists, find sufficient arguments for their stance in key principles of international law.1 They also argue that focusing world attention on prosecutions of human rights violators may help to deter the forces of the old regime from attempting to retake power through violence. By highlighting and condemning the repressive policies of the old regime, the new government can help establish real standards for the protection of human rights. The prosecution of violators will also provide an opportunity to rid the armed and security forces of some of their worst elements. Perhaps most importantly, such an exercise can help to heal the wounds of those who suffered from official abuse, restore the lost sense of national dignity, and establish faith in the new government as it attempts to build a democratic system based on respect for rights and the rule of law. Punishing perpetrators of past abuses can thus serve not only as a symbolic break with the ugly legacy of authoritarian rule, but also as an affirmation of adherence to new democratic values. Failure to prosecute violators, the argument goes, could seriously undermine the legitimacy of a democratically elected government and generate widespread feelings of cynicism toward the new regime. Advocates of punishment for former military rulers also contend that any concession to the latters' demand for impunity opens the door to a more systematic build-up of military control over the new institutions and gives the military a potential veto over the new government's policies. On the other side, advocates of...