Time Of Political Upheaval Research Articles

The First German Football Film. Zoltan Korda’s Die elf Teufel and the Cultural Transgressions of the late Weimar Republic

By the close of the Golden Twenties, sport in Germany had experienced an exponential rise in popularity, both among the masses and the capitalistic elite. Though the cultural and technological progression of the 1920s was welcomed by many, a distinct fatigue and criticism emerged in the late years of the doomed German republic. The burgeoning cinematic realm facilitated the combination of the popularity of sport, and more specifically football, with pedagogical influence in a time of political upheaval and crisis, illuminating the cultural battlefield at the time. Zoltan Korda’s 1927 film Die elf Teufel elucidates these characteristics of early cinematic landscape in Weimar Germany. By examining the main characters and their interpersonal interactions, Korda’s film sets the stage not only for the fall of the young republic. In analyzing the star player Tommy’s role in the love triangle central to the plot as well as the variations of the “new woman” (‘Gretchen,’ ‘Girl,’ and ‘Garçonne’), this article demonstrates how Korda’s film not only highlights the progressively problematic cultural development at play in the Weimar Republic but also the purported victory of traditional German values over those of international modernity.

Questions of Privacy at the Zamoyska Palace in Warsaw

Countess Ludwika Maria Zamoyska-Poniatowska (1728–1804) and her only child, Urszula Wandalin Mniszech-Zamoyska (1750–1816) were prominent figures at the court of their brother and uncle Stanisław August Poniatowski (1732–98), the last king of Poland from 1764 to 1795. Their influence has been recognised in the past, yet their — informal — politics have started to attract the attention of scholars only recently, while their architectural endeavours have yet to be explored. This paper offers a case-study of the no longer extant Zamoyska palace in Warsaw, the renovation of which was managed by Urszula Mniszech, on behalf of her mother. A set of architectural drawings from the 1780s and a 1799 inventory of the residence form the main focus of study. The distribution and function of rooms, interior decoration and the façade provide clues to the way this residence was to shape the life of Ludwika Zamoyska in a time of political upheaval. The variations between seemingly executed and rejected architectural designs also raise questions that can contribute to a better understanding of the different meanings of privacy in the late eighteenth century.

The Production Process of Iship kongshin hoemaengch’u of 1694 and its Significance in the History of Crafts : Focusing on the Analysis of Posagongshin bok’undogam ŭigwe

This paper studies the materials, tools, and artisans recorded in the Posagongshin bok'undogam ŭigwe to understand the significance of Iship kongshin hoemaengch’u in the history of crafts in Korea. Iship kongshin hoemaengch’u is an elegantly decorated twenty-four-meter-long scroll made for King Sukjong, containing oaths of allegiance to the king in a time of political upheaval and reforms, and the names of 489 meritorious subjects. In making this scroll, a special directorate was set up and several government offices, including the Directorate of Fabrics, provided materials and tools, and artisans of various fields were assigned. The long fabric was made in the traditional way by cooperation of yŏnsajang(thread artisan), badijang(badi for loom artisan) and ch’ojang(silk artisan). The attaching layers were made by pulling the wooden frame tight with bamboo trees in the spacious floor of the Ministry of War building at Gyeongdeokgung Palace. The scroll was bordered with brilliant silk, and was fitted with jade caps made by okjang(jade artisan) from Pyeongando Province and a cord made by tahoejang(threaded cord artisan) was attached. Court painters drew guidelines for writings and official scribes wrote the oaths and names in regular script. Conclusively, Iship kongshin hoemaengch’u shows the best of court craftsmanship made in cooperation between skilled artisans of specialized fields, using the materials of highest quality to manifest King Sukjong’s will to assert his authority.

Irish Identities Revisited in Mary O’Donnell’s “Empire”

This paper aims at analysing the liminal and thus ambiguous position of both Ireland and the Irish within the British Empire through Mary O’Donnell’s short story “Empire”, published in an eponymous collection in 2018. My approach is critically informed by the theoretical perspective of liminal studies, which have characterised the short story as the liminal genre par excellence, and are thus especially suitable to address the complexities of postcolonial identities. This paper focuses on the different thematic and narrative techniques the story employs to represent different Irish experiences, while negotiating conflicting identities and spaces at a time of political upheaval and social unrest – in the years surrounding the Great War and the Easter Rising – thus providing a contemporary perspective that invites reflection and re-consideration of the official Irish national memory.

WORDS THAT MIGHT SAVE NECKS: PHILIPP KHABO KOEPSELL, EPISTEMIC MURDER AND POETIC JUSTICE1

ABSTRACTI begin with a poem of Koepsell's that questions the writing of poetry in times of political upheaval, and whether words can save necks. I then examine the collection Die Akte James Knopf for possible answers to those questions. José Medina conceptualises epistemic death, and Koepsell reveals the closeness of epistemic and actual death. I read Die Akte James Knopf as both a poetry collection and a dossier of evidence in a case of epistemic murder; it uncovers the mechanisms of racialised knowledge production/perpetuation, and produces what David Lloyd has called poetic justice. Medina writes of guerilla pluralism, which in this context I call provoking pluralism, because it privileges linguistic intervention over violence. In its grammar and effects, provoking pluralism is both irritating and potentially generative. I also conceive of ‘guerilla epistemology’, which operates a reversal, or revolution, of epistemic privilege. Koepsell provokingly acknowledges that the violence of epistemic injustice is, like other kinds of violence, tied to pleasure: racialised injustice sells. With his poetry and strategic use of humour, I argue, he produces counter‐pleasure, which infiltrates dominant knowledge and stimulates change. It might one day save someone's neck.

Reading the Silence of Women in Saadat Hassan Manto's Selected Short Stories

This research paper offers an analysis of a selection of Saadat Hasan Manto's works through a feminist perspective. It explores the feminine content with reference to the suffering and violation of women as a major preoccupation of the selected short stories. As his works indicate, Manto portrayed experiences of women during the time of political upheaval in the subcontinent. He presents the silence of the marginalized women as a source for a deep insight into the patriarchal structures of society. The exposure to violence holds a fundamentally important place in Manto's "Colder than Ice", "Mozail", and "The Return", as they are the means to question gender and sexuality along with the dogmas of race culture and ethnicity. The paper aims to put forth the violence and victimization that women had to endure during the partition of the subcontinent. In light of the feminist theory, the present study analyses the gendered boundaries and objectification of women in the pursuit of male sexual pleasure, unravelling that once the silence speaks, women can make their own place in the world.

Gendered dissent in the Arab uprising: The challenges and the gains

The events that followed the revolution of 25 January 2011 demonstrated the tenacity and resilience of gendered dissent and its centrality to collective action and civil disobedience, thus enriching the transnational feminist archive with the experiences and praxis of gendered revolutionary action. Paying particular attention to women’s activism during the uprisings in Egypt, this article focuses on the broader themes of gendered political resistance and the intersections of gender ideology, state policing, Islamism and militarism with protest and collective action. The aim is to take count of the challenges and gains of gendered resistance and women’s political participation during times of political upheaval.

Nationalism and Identity in Qatar after 2017: The Narrative of the New National Museum

How are nationalism and national identity shifting in Qatar as a result of the regional crisis? This study explores whether this moment of geopolitical fluidity allows for changes in sociocultural behavior and norms among Qatari citizens. Specifically, this research uses the case study of the newly opened National Museum of Qatar to examine a state-crafted narrative of national identity and society’s response to this narrative. Our original fieldwork highlights the museum’s combination of desert and sea lifestyles to create a “unity” narrative of Qatari national identity, and explores the mixed reactions of citizens who feel varying levels of representation and inclusion in this narrative. This study concludes with a critical analysis of the malleability of national identity during times of political upheaval.

Between ritual and information: Three phases of Norwegian news audiences’ sense-making of the election of Donald Trump

This article investigates sense-making processes of news audiences when faced with destabilizing global events. The destabilizing event is Trump’s 2016 election win, which we study from the perspective of audiences far removed: in the Nordic region. Asking how we can understand shifts in the balance between the informational and ritual aspects of news over time, we study how journalism matters when ordinary practices are suddenly uprooted, and in the gradual return to everyday life. Based on the analysis of extensive qualitative material, we formulate three successive phases of Norwegian news audiences’ reactions to the election: annoying circus far away, world-shattering shock and regained stability. We underline not only shared experiences but also nuances which we link to differences in media use routines, levels of interests in news as well as resources for the sense-making of politics. Our findings contribute to the scrutiny of news use in everyday life and at times of political upheaval, and add an audience perspective to research on Trump and the media.

Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment

Contemporary democracies are increasingly shaped by a surge of populism, posing serious threats to the idea of liberal democracy. Particularly in the run-up to elections, knowledge of such threats is essential for citizens to cast an informed vote. Against this background, the present study examined the likelihood of media users to engage with political news providing critical perspectives on populist movements in a 24-hour social media field experiment during the 2017 federal election campaign in Germany (<em>N</em> = 210). Based on two selective exposure measures, findings suggest that exposure to critical news is contingent upon the conceptualization of populist partisanship as a political orientation of either high commitment (i.e., voting intention) or high affinity (i.e., sympathy for a party). While high commitment triggered a rather classic confirmation bias, especially regarding click decisions, high affinity caused selection patterns to be more strongly guided by informational utility, particularly during newsfeed browsing, with counter-attitudinal information receiving more attention. When public sentiment cues were present, however, attitudinal patterns disappeared. These findings imply that partisan news use in times of political upheaval is best gauged by taking a closer look at the particular type of partisanship that guides selective exposure, as both types of partisanship caused contrary exposure patterns, and that today’s news environments potentially override attitudinal influences by providing additional social monitoring cues.

Youth Perceptions of Voting Participation in the Midst of Catalonia’s Active Struggle for Independence

Focusing on youth attitudes during a time of political upheaval in Catalonia, we study 1,438 high school students, aged 15 to 16, nested within 30 high schools. Using multilevel analyses, we examine their perceptions of the importance of voting across different election types (independence referendum, local, subnational, national, supernational) and intent to vote regularly upon turning 18. Results show a matching effect of perceived voting importance with levels of municipal, Catalan, Spanish, and European identification. Notably, voting importance across different elections also relates to the extent students perceived their social studies teacher as open to debate and the expression of student opinions within the classroom. This study also highlights differences between the importance that students place on voting in a possible independence referendum compared with conventional elections. For example, socioeconomic status and political dialogue with parents are not associated with perceived voting importance concerning the referendum but are with other election types.

Of Cedars Across the Sea

Of Cedars Across the Sea Krystal Elkhoury (bio) Lighthouse for the Drowning: Poems Jawdat Fakhreddine Huda Fakhreddine & Jayson Iwen, trans. BOA Editions, Ltd. www.boaeditions.org 128 Pages; Print, $16.00 Translation is a daunting task, and translation of poetry is even more difficult due to its inherent precision, and the risk of cultural nuances getting lost in translation. Despite this, Huda Fakhreddine and Jayson Iwen were more than ready to undertake the herculean endeavor of translating the poetry of Jawdat Fakhreddine—Huda's father—from Arabic into English. Huda Fakhreddine and Iwen note in the introduction the hardships that they grappled with over the course of the translation process wherein important choices had to be made regarding words with multiple meanings and potential translations. Huda Fakhreddine and Iwen made deliberate decisions to stay as true to the original as possible, ensuring that the meaning and intent of the poems were not lost, while also expertly adding more subtext through wordplay. After reading the poems in both English and Arabic, I found myself stunned at how Huda Fakhreddine and Iwen have managed to accomplish this delicate juggling act. The introduction provides historical context for the reader as to how Lighthouse for the Drowning and its translation came to be: it was written during a time of political upheaval and eventual civil war within Lebanon which forced Jawdat Fakhreddine into a temporary exile to America. Jawdat Fakhreddine's feelings of isolation and banishment to a foreign land are at the forefront of his poems, which are saturated with the strong desire for remembrance and returning, a return to youth and childhood, a return to an energetic and carefree life, a return to something forgotten and the desire to never forget, a return home to one's roots. There is a yearning for something more that is so visceral and captivating it makes the reader feel every melancholic, depressed, and excited emotion that gripped Fakhreddine at the time of writing. The form of the collection stands as metaphor, with English text on the left and Arabic on the right, and can easily be interpreted as representing the West and the Middle East, respectively. The negative space between the text and translation is significant, and reading the book from beginning to end—left to right—has the reader metaphorically journeying from a foreign Western country, travelling over the bodies of water (negative space) that separate them from their destination in the east, guided home by the beacon of a lighthouse of words. Lighthouse for the Drowning encapsulates the feelings of melancholy and isolation that affects any member of a diaspora and evokes a desire to return home even in those who have never set foot ashore the land of their ancestors. Despite the nuances found in the English and Arabic languages, there is an opportunity for a play on words through translation—in one poem, the word "bahr" is translated as "sea," but can also mean a "meter" in Arabic poetry, as the translators note. In the same poem, "waves" stand in for the names of the Arabic poetic meters. Together, this translation creates a beautiful interplay of imagery where the author likens his spirit to the seas before being overtaken by the waves, like words that overwhelm but are the only thing that can convey the poetry of his spirit. In the second stanza, Fakhreddine states outright that "Poetry is the deepest sea, / distant yet more urgent than surf breaking on rocks." The sea, or meter, of poetry is a raucous entity with powerful meanings that rise and fall in waves that ebb and flow on the shores of a reader's mind. Fakhreddine's poems are an intimate offering of the author's deepest fears, desires, and longings, a retrospective reflection to his roots and a yearning to return to the land of his childhood. Water plays a large role in his collection, a renewing and rejuvenating force, showcasing the power of the sea whose waves climb high to batter at the Ancient Phoenician Wall in Batroun, insisting to be seen, to be read, to be heard. Fakhreddine enshrines his words in the dynamic Lebanese landscape: in the...

Writing for CBC Wartime Radio Drama: John Weinzweig, Socialism, and the Twelve-Tone Dilemma

Radio drama was a quintessential source of entertainment for Canadian audiences during the Second World War, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) used the art form to distribute propaganda and garner support for the Canadian war effort. Similarly, CBC radio drama became an essential artistic outlet for artists and composers to articulate their political beliefs to a national audience. This article frames Canadian composer John Weinzweig’s works for the CBC radio drama series New Homes for Old (1941) within the socio-political climate of the 1930s and 1940s and suggests that radio drama provided Weinzweig with a national soapbox for his radical socialist ideals during a time of political upheaval. My research draws on archival materials from Library and Archives Canada, the CBC Music Library Archives, and Concordia’s Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism Studies to build upon the biographical work of Elaine Keillor and Brian Cherney. I establish Weinzweig’s socialist ties and argue that his political leanings prompted him to simplify his serial language in favour of a simplified modernist aesthetic, which appealed to Canada’s conservative wartime audiences. This study of Weinzweig’s radio works reveals how the composer desired to make serial compositions accessible and palatable, and shows how he incorporated vernacular idioms such as folk songs and national anthems as foils to the elitist European serial aesthetic. In doing so, I show how Weinzweig uses a powerful and pervasive medium to promote his unique compositional style and also to reflect the cultural, political, and aesthetic ideals of leftist socialism.

The spectre of censorship: media regulation, political anxiety and public contestations in India (2011–2013)

This article focuses on contemporary discussions around media regulation and Internet regulation in India and examines in particular certain events from 2011 to 2013. The aim is to present a composite narrative and historical account, a rendering of the important proposals, arguments and judicial proceedings that came about at a time of political upheaval and increased media ‘activism’. It concludes with a discussion of an August 2013 conference which offers an insight into the latest discursive developments in the field.

Social Media in Syria’s Uprising and Post-Revolution Libya: An Analysis of Activists’ and Blogger’s Online Engagement

The past four years have been a time of political upheaval and reform for many Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. There have been varied explanations for these changes including the demographic profile of younger generations (Dubai School of Government, 2011a), anger at corruption in government (Miladi, 2011), adoption of techniques from successful political campaigns (Ishani, 2011), and the coordination of dissent through offline and online efforts. The use of social media by anti- and pro-government groups has been widely publicized, and some suggest that social media was afforded too much credit in the political changes and reforms that occurred in places such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and the ongoing conflict in Syria (Ghannam, 2011). Although this may be the case, the information that can be gathered from examining the social media of political activist groups is often a window into the movements and a source of alternative information for the people of those countries. Because the media are often censored under authoritative governments, these social media sites become an important voice in describing and documenting attacks, coordinating protests and other anti-government activities, creating community, and communicating information to local and global audiences (Eaton, 2013; Howard et al., 2011; Khamis & Vaughn, 2013; Storck, 2011).

Geltrude Mingrone: an insatiable curiosity

Geltrude Mingrone: an insatiable curiosity

The Bioarchaeology of violence

The Bioarchaeology of Violence. DEBRA L. MARTIN, RYAN P. HARROD, and VENTURA R. PEREZ (eds.). Foreword by Clark Spencer Larsen. University Press of Florida, 2012. xiii, 291 pp., ill., maps. $74.95 (cloth), ISBN 13: 978-0-8130-4150-6; $24.95 (paper), ISBN: 978-08130-4950-2.Violence and trauma are ubiquitous in past and present populations, but they are often reduced to frequencies and descriptions of lesions in bioarchaeological discussions. In The Bioarchaeology of Violence, the editors and authors breathe life and meaning into their discussions of violence in past populations and frequently focus on the experience of individuals in those populations.The first section of the book integrates papers on method and theory. Ventura Perez examines violence from a perspective the goes beyond trauma to the complexity of cultural behaviors and beliefs associated with violence. Haagen Klaus takes a related approach to structural violence, offering a case study from Peru that shows how structural violence leads to other social inequalities. Ryan Harrod, Pierre Lienard, and Debra Martin discuss the use of ethnographic information as a bridge to interpreting violence in past populations.In a second section, three chapters on small-scale conflict tackle the interpretation of individuals. Robert Montgomery and Megan Perry present a study of six individuals from Jordan during the seventh to eighth centuries, a time of political upheaval. Community violence in the fourteenth century Southwest site of Arroyo Hondo is discussed by Ann Palkovich, who argues that violence does not necessarily indicate conflict. Kristin Kuckelman details the signatures of strife in terminal Pueblo III settlements in the Southwest, tying together drought with escalating hostile relations.A third section on warfare incorporates three chapters on trauma associated with large-scale conflicts. Heather Wome, Charles Cobb, Giovanna Vidoli, and Dawnie Wolfe Steadman examine violence and spatial organization in Tennessee. They argue that the location of settlements is based on both resource optimization and protection, sometimes resulting in less optimal resource zones. Vera Tiesler and Andrea Cucina examine cranial trauma among the Maya, linking the types of weapons used and the location of wounds to conclude that most wounds were not the result of face to face combat. Tiffiny Tung looks at ancient Peruvian violence against women, specifically detailing the different treatments of local versus foreign women. …

‘Before Pharaoh seized Gaza’. A Reappraisal of the Date, Function, and Purpose of the Superscription of Jeremiah 47

Abstract In this article it is argued that the phrase ‘before Pharaoh seized Gaza’ in Jer 47:1 is not a mere chronological precision, pointing at the (ultimate) fulfilment of the prophecy against Philistia, but a heading with its own proper function and purpose. The superscription of Jer. 47:1 refers to Pharaoh Neco’s capture of that city in 601/0 BCE, whereas the oracle of 47:2-7 itself is to be dated ca. 604. Neco was able to take Gaza after he had beaten the Babylonian army at the Egyptian border, so that the Babylonians had to withdraw to their homeland. In this time of political upheaval, the heading was added to the oracle of Jer 47 in order to warn the people of Judah that YHWH’s judgment through the sword of Babylon was still to be expected, notwithstanding Pharaoh’s recent success.

Servants, Housewives, Vixens, and the Ever-changing Apron

Aprons appear to be innocuous garments, simple in design and straightforward in function. In fact, apron design historically mirrors the overall dress silhouette of the day, changing in response to cultural and social factors such as technological innovation, stock market performance, the women’s liberation movement, and times of political upheaval or economic prosperity. Apron styles, materials, and adornments, and the times and places when and where they are worn, reveal information about apron wearers and their social circumstances. Drawing on contemporary sewing patterns, advertisements, and images, this article explores the history of this often-overlooked garment from Victorian England to present-day Canada.

The Army and Politics in Ancient Egypt

The Army and Politics in Ancient Egypt Toby Wilkinson (bio) To the student of Egypt’s ancient history, the pervasive influence of the army in the country’s current politics comes as no surprise. Throughout the pharaonic era, from the foundation of the Egyptian state (ca. 3000 B.C.) to its absorption into the Roman Empire (30 B.C.), military might played a role at least as important as hereditary succession in determining who ruled the Nile Valley. The first king of the First Dynasty, Narmer, won his throne by force and proclaimed his victory in a great commemorative stone palette decorated with scenes of military victory. Celebrated as Egypt’s founding document, the Narmer Palette stands today in the entrance of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, just yards from the site of the popular uprising that recently unseated President Hosni Mubarak. In the centuries and millennia following Narmer, the kingship of Egypt was always vulnerable to seizure by the strongman of the day, despite its presentation in art and writing as a sacred institution, god-given and immutable. More often than not, that strongman was an army commander. This pattern of succession is most apparent at times of political upheaval, for example the century of turmoil that followed the collapse of the Middle Kingdom in the 18th century B.C. In this uncertain time, when the kingship passed from one claimant to another with bewildering rapidity, one of the men who seized the throne (and ruled long enough to commission a stone statue of himself) was called Mermesha. His name simply means “overseer of the army.” Another ruler, King Sobekhotep III (ca. 1680 B.C.), started his career in the palace guard and rose through the ranks of the army to a position where he was able, successfully, to challenge for the throne. On his royal monuments he made a virtue of his background, openly flaunting his non-royal origins so as to distinguish himself from the tired and discredited royal family that, a generation or two earlier, had led Egypt into disunity and chaos. Sobkehotep III did not inaugurate a dynasty of his own, but instead in typical army fashion he left the throne to three brothers— Neferhotep I, Sahathor, and Sobekhotep IV—who shared his military backround (their grandfather was an infantry officer). Even in periods of strong central rule, such as the “golden age” of the Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1539–1319 B.C.), a close study of the historical sources reveals the central role of the army in the succession to the throne. The founding kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty came to power as victors in a protracted civil war. Once established in the royal palace, they were keen to portray themselves in a new light: as kings by divine right, the guardians of Egypt’s religious traditions. Yet they never forgot their military origins. Thus when the childless Amenhotep I looked for an heir to succeed him, he chose an ambitious and dynamic army leader (the future Thutmose I) who would extend the borders of Egypt and forge an empire in the Middle East. Thutmose I’s surviving royal inscriptions betray his origins. In a tone of rampant militarism, they extol warfare as the righteous duty of an Egyptian ruler, and laud the king as a great warrior who is ready to roam the earth and take on any adversary: “He trod its ends in might and victory seeking a fight, but he found no one who would stand up to him.”1 Thutmose I’s empire building strengthened the military’s grip on power. In earlier ages Egypt had depended upon conscript armies, raised from the general population as and when occasion demanded and bolstered by mercenaries. But such a system could not meet the demands of forging and maintaining an empire. The annexation of large tracts of territory in Syria, Palestine, and Nubia necessitated permanent garrisons to enforce Egyptian control, backed up by the threat of overwhelming force in case of insurrection. Only a permanent standing army could deliver such a policy. The Eighteenth Dynasty thus witnessed the creation of a full-time army for the first time in...