Publisher: Central European University Press

Roma-Gypsy presence in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 15th-18th Century

Roma-Gypsy Presence in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 15th-18th Century

Author(s): Lech Mróz / Language(s): English

Keywords: Romanies; History; Ethnic relations; Poland; Lithuania – Poland; Grand Duchy of Lithuania;

This is an analysis of 166 original and previously unpublished documents dating from the very first mention of a Gypsy in 1401 up to the year 1765. These documents range from royal decrees thru lawsuits to entries in municipal records. Some were written in Polish but many are in Latin, German or Ruthenian. They tell the story of not only the Gypsies living in Poland, but also of those who now live in Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine.Though Poland has not traditionally had a large Roma population, the author leads the reader through an eventful history of a people living on the margins of contemporary Europe. The historic documents illustrate a marked contrast to present stereotypes and popular media images and shows how the position of Roma/Gypsies shifted gradually from respected, wealthy and partly settled citizens of the early modern times, towards criminalized vagrants of the 18th century. This is a careful interpretation and re-interpretation of documents pertaining to the Roma's past that will provide an enlightening historical perspective towards the re-evaluation and self-definition of the Romani people in contemporary Europe.

The Positive Mind

The Positive Mind

Author(s): Evaldas Nekrašas / Language(s): English

Keywords: Positivism;Hume;Comte;Mill; Empirio-criticism (Mach); Conventionalism (Poincaré); Logical Empiricism (Logical Positivism); Marxism; Pragmatism; Analytic Philosophy; Carnap; Schlick; Philosophy and Science

This book is an intellectual adventure story, a history of ideas, and a rigorous reappraisal of a major movement in philosophy, science, and culture that many have been pronounced irrelevant, passé, even dead. Yet upon closer consideration, we may find that what we have come to call positivism has profoundly influenced our thought and practice in numerous ways. It would be difficult to find another philosophy that has been more influential, and at least by that measure, we may say that positivism not only survives, but thrives. In this book the origins, problems, and dilemmas of the positive mind are discussed, its challenges are revealed, and the entire drama of its development is presented.

Where Currents Meet. Frontiers in Post-Soviet Fiction of Kharkiv, Ukraine

Where Currents Meet. Frontiers in Post-Soviet Fiction of Kharkiv, Ukraine

Author(s): Tanya Zaharchenko / Language(s): English

Keywords: Russian fiction; Ukraine fiction; History and criticism; Memory in literature; Ukraine authors; Russian authors

Where Currents Meet, Tanya Zaharchenko’s path-breaking study of literature and cultural memory, moves decisively beyond the simplistic view of a post-Soviet Ukraine divided between east and west. It positions the Ukrainian and Russian components of cultural experience in the country’s east as elements of a complex continuum. Combining insights from memory studies and border studies, Zaharchenko analyzes a generation of younger writers in the city of Kharkiv—a “doubletake generation” that came of age at the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse and now revisits this experience through fiction. In the works of Serhiy Zhadan, Andreĭ Krasniashchikh, Yuri Tsaplin, Oleh Kotsarev, and others the author reveals how borderlands and frontiers, both geographical and conceptual, acquire zonal qualities of their own as these writers navigate the historical legacy they have inherited.

Hybrid Renaissance. Culture, Language, Architecture

Hybrid Renaissance. Culture, Language, Architecture

Author(s): Peter Burke / Language(s): English

Keywords: Renaissance; Italy; Cultural fusion; Court and courtiers; Cities and towns; 5. Borderlands; Civilization—1268–1559; Cultural fusion

The movement we know as the Renaissance used to be regarded as the replacement of one system of ideas and literary and visual conventions (the “Gothic”) with another system (the “Classical”). However, it has become increasingly obvious that Gothic and Classical coexisted for a long time, and also that they interacted, producing hybrid forms not only of thought, art, literature and especially architecture, but also of language, literature, music, philosophy, law and religion. As the Renaissance movement spread outside Italy, to other parts of Europe and also beyond, from Goa to Quito, different local traditions made their contribution to the mix. Given the interest in cultural hybridity long shown by Natalie Davis, this theme allows Burke to pay homage to the work of Davis as well as to explore what was for long a neglected theme in Renaissance studies.

Post-Communist Mafia State. The Case of Hungary

Post-Communist Mafia State. The Case of Hungary

Author(s): Bálint Magyar / Language(s): English

Keywords: Hungary; Politics and government; 1989-; Post-communism; Political corruption; Dictatorship; Organized crime;

Having won a two-third majority in Parliament at the 2010 elections, the Hungarian political party Fidesz removed many of the institutional obstacles of exerting power. Just like the party, the state itself was placed under the control of a single individual, who since then has applied the techniques used within his party to enforce submission and obedience onto society as a whole. In a new approach the author characterizes the system as the ‘organized over-world’, the ‘state employing mafia methods’ and the ’adopted political family', applying these categories not as metaphors but elements of a coherent conceptual framework.The actions of the post-communist mafia state model are closely aligned with the interests of power and wealth concentrated in the hands of a small group of insiders. While the traditional mafia channeled wealth and economic players into its spheres of influence by means of direct coercion, the mafia state does the same by means of parliamentary legislation, legal prosecution, tax authority, police forces and secret service. The innovative conceptual framework of the book is important and timely not only for Hungary, but also for other post-communist countries subjected to autocratic rules.

Jewish Life in Austria and Germany since 1945. Identity and Communal Reconstruction

Jewish Life in Austria and Germany since 1945.Identity and Communal Reconstruction

Author(s): Suzanne Cohen-Weisz / Language(s): English

Keywords: Jews;Germany;Austria;Ethnic Relations;1945-1990;Social conditions;Identity;20th century history;

Based on published primary and secondary materials and oral interviews with some eighty communal and organizational leaders, experts and scholars, this book provides a comparative account of the reconstruction of Jewish communal life in both Germany and Austria after 1945. The author explains the process of reconstruction over the following six decades, and its results in both countries. The monograph focuses on the variety of prevailing perceptions about topics such as: the state of Israel, one’s relationship to the country of residence, the Jewish religion, the aftermath of the Holocaust, and the influx of post-soviet immigrants. Cohen-Weisz examines the changes in Jewish group identity and their impact on the development of communities. The study analyzes the similarities and differences in regard to the political, social, institutional and identity developments within the two countries, and their changing attitudes and relationships with surrounding societies. It seeks to show the evolution of these two countries’ Jewish communities in diverse national political circumstances and varying post-war governmental policies.

The Lettered Knight. Knowledge and Aristocratic Behaviour in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

The Lettered Knight. Knowledge and Aristocratic Behaviour in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

Author(s): Martin Aurell / Language(s): English

Keywords: Aristocracy;France;12th century;13th century;Social life and customs;Medieval civilization

An encounter between a warring knight and the world of learning could seem a paradox. It is nonetheless related with the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, an essential intellectual movement for western history. Knights not only fought in battles, but also moved in sophisticated courts. Knights were interested in Latin classics and reading, and writing poetry. Supportive of “jongleurs” and minstrels, they enjoyed literary conversations with clerics who would attempt to reform their behaviour, which was often brutal. These lettered warriors, while improving their culture, learned to repress their own violence and were initiated to courtesy: selective language, measured gestures, elegance in dress, and manners at the table. Their association with women, who were often learned, became more gallant. A revolution of thought occurred among lay elites who, in contact with clergy, began to use their weapons for common welfare. This new conduct was a tangible sign of Medievalist society's leap forward towards modernity. This monograph contains a great deal of detailed information about the attitudes towards learning and written culture among members of the nobility in different parts of Europe in the Middle Ages.

Utopian Horizons. Ideology, Politics, Literature

Utopian Horizons. Ideology, Politics, Literature

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Keywords: Utopia/Dystopia;political thoughts;political religion;

The 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia in 2016 has directed attention toward the importance of utopianism. Utopian Horizons investigates the possibilities of cooperation between the humanities and the social sciences in the analysis of 20th century and contemporary utopian phenomena. The chapters deal with the major problems of interpreting utopias, the relationship between utopia and ideology, and the problematic issue as to whether utopia necessarily leads to dystopia. Covering such fields as literary studies, political science and the history of ideas, the volume demonstrates that a cooperative approach results in a fuller understanding of the role of fictionality in the social sciences. Besides reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary utopian investigations, Utopian Horizons effectively represents the constructive attitudes of utopian thought, a feature that not only defines late 20th- and 21st-century utopianism, but is one of the primary reasons behind the rising importance of the topic.

Subversive Stages. Theater in Pre- and Post-Communist Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria

Subversive Stages. Theater in Pre- and Post-Communist Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria

Author(s): Ileana Alexandra Orlich / Language(s): English

Keywords: East European drama; 20th century; criticism; Russian drama; drama adoptions; Shakespeare adoptions; communism and literature;

Exploring theater practices in communist and post-communist Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, this book analyzes intertextuality or “inter-theatricality” as a political strategy, designed to criticize contemporary political conditions while at the same time trying to circumvent censorship. In the Soviet bloc the theater of the absurd, experimentation, irony, and intertextual distancing (estrangement) were much more than mere aesthetic language games, but were planned political strategies that used indirection to say what could not be said directly.Plays by Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian dramatists are examined, who are “retrofitting” the past by adapting the political crimes and horrifying tactics of totalitarianism to the classical theatre (with Shakespeare a favorite) to reveal the region’s traumatic history. By the sustained analysis of the aesthetic devices used as political tools, Orlich makes a very strong case for the continued relevance of the theater as one of the subtlest media in the public sphere. She embeds her close readings in a thorough historical analysis and displays a profound knowledge of the political role of theater history.

Muslim Land, Christian Labor. Transforming Ottoman Imperial Subjects into Bulgarian National Citizens, 1878–1939

Muslim Land, Christian Labor. Transforming Ottoman Imperial Subjects into Bulgarian National Citizens, 1878–1939

Author(s): Anna M. Mirkova / Language(s): English

Keywords: Muslims;Bulgaria;Eastern Rumelia;20th century;Christians;Nationalism;Turkey;ethnic relations;

Focusing upon a region in Southern Bulgaria, a region that has been the crossroads between Europe and Asia for many centuries, this book describes how former Ottoman Empire Muslims were transformed into citizens of Balkan nation-states. This is a region marked by shifting borders, competing Turkish and Bulgarian sovereignties, rival nationalisms, and migration. Problems such as these were ultimately responsible for the disintegration of the dynastic empires into nation-states. Land that had traditionally belonged to Muslims—individually or communally—became a symbolic and material resource for Bulgarian state building and was the terrain upon which rival Bulgarian and Turkish nationalisms developed in the wake of the dissolution of the late Ottoman Empire and the birth of early republican Turkey and the introduction of capitalism.By the outbreak of World War II, Turkish Muslims had become a polarized national minority. Their conflicting efforts to adapt to post-Ottoman Bulgaria brought attention to the increasingly limited availability of citizenship rights, not only to Turkish Muslims, but to Bulgarian Christians as well.

Practices of Coexistence. Constructions of the Other in Early Modern Perceptions

Practices of Coexistence. Constructions of the Other in Early Modern Perceptions

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Keywords: Renaissance;East and West;Europe—Middle East Relations;Philosophy in literature;philosophy in art;Ethnicity;Stereotypes;Cultural relations;Muslims;christianity;

The essays in this book provide stimulating contributions to the ongoing debate concerning the representation of differing cultures, i.e., the “image of the Other” in the early modern period. They deal with images, projections, and perceptions, based on various experiences of coexistence. Although the individual contributions contain sources and references of iconography, this is not just another volume of art history or visual studies. As examples of practices in diverse historical contexts, the book includes a variety of textual material, such as literary productions, rhetorical exercises, dramatic applications, chronicles, epistles, and diary-like historical accounts that express ethnographic sensitivities. Another novel feature of the volume is the deliberate digression of traditional scholars’ focus, and the investigation of rarely examined regions and practices. This approach allows the contributors to spotlight their special areas of research and to share a fresh new look at early modernity. Thus, supported by a thorough research apparatus, these studies propose a new cultural history of the early modern coexistence of various communities, as identified in current research by young scholars.

Of Red Dragons and Evil Spirits. Post-Communist Historiography Between Democratization and New Politics of History

Of Red Dragons and Evil Spirits. Post-Communist Historiography Between Democratization and New Politics of History

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Keywords: Post-communism;Eastern Europe;Historiography;1989;

The collection of well researched chapters assesses the uses and misuses of history 25 years after the collapse of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. As opposed to the emphasis on the recovery of memory or revival of national histories that seemed to be the prevelant historiographical approaches of the 1990s, the last decade has seen a particular set of narratives equating Nazism and communism and so providing opportunities to exonerate wartime collaboration, cast the nation as victim even when its government was allied with Germany, and acknowledge the Jewish Holocaust while obfuscating its meaning and significance.In their comparative analysis the authors are also interested in new practices of performing ‘Europeanness.’ Therefore their presentations of Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Slovenian post-communist memory politics move beyond the common national myths in order to provide a new insight into transnational interactions and exchanges in Europe in general. The juxtaposition of these politics, the processes in other parts of Europe, the modes of remembering shaped by displacement and the transnational memory practices enable a close encounter with the divergences and assess the potential of the formation of common, European memory practices.

Quest for a Suitable Past. Myths and Memory in Central and Eastern Europe

Quest for a Suitable Past. Myths and Memory in Central and Eastern Europe

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Keywords: Social life and customs;Eastern Europe;Central Europe;Myth;Memory;Post-communism;Politics and government

An Orderly Mess

An Orderly Mess

Author(s): Helga Nowotny / Language(s): English

Keywords: Order; Philosophy;Future;

This book was triggered by the recent geopolitical shifts and the turn towards an allegedly post-factual era.An Orderly Mess is a timely diagnosis of the current dissolution of the modern order, while highlighting the opportunities of messiness. The essay focuses on the temporal and spatial dimensions in which messiness becomes apparent today: broken time lines and fragmented spaces. Messiness is framed by a blurring of the world orderings inherited from modernity. Against the backdrop of rapid digitalization, we may find ourselves again in a phase of transition toward new ways of world ordering. The focus on messiness reveals the different patterns of order and disorder that underpin the current process of transition.In the second half of the volume the author revisits her 1989 book on Eigenzeit, which explored how moderns experience time, or are exposed to it. A quarter century later she finds that the new inventions of technology have challenged the traditional meaning of time (and also of space) even more, increasing the non-simultaneity of human existence. Today, small devices channel into one’s fingertips medial eigenzeit: the time that one has to oneself in order to spend it with those who are absent. The past has shrunk and the present extends to the future: “there is no pre¬determined future, only a future that is as radically open as it is inherently uncertain.”

From Central Planning to the Market. The Transformation of the Czech Economy, 1989–2004

From Central Planning to the Market. The Transformation of the Czech Economy, 1989–2004

Author(s): Libor Žídek / Language(s): English

Keywords: Czech Republic;economic condition;Business enterprises;economic policy;20th century history;1993-

This book describes the process of the Czech economic transformation from the beginning of the 1990s to the country’s entry into the European Union in 2004. This transformation is divided into four periods: an initial recession caused by the transformation; economic growth in the mid-1990s; a recession connected to the currency crisis of 1997; and recovery and growth from 1999 until 2004, when the analysis ends. The examination covers the main aspects of the transformation—an overall view of the process, political transition, economic policy, economic results (GDP development, infl ation, unemployment), changes in outside indicators (balance of payments), privatization, transformation of the fi nancial sector, and changes in the business sector and institutional development.The book also compares Czech development in this transformative era to those of Poland and Hungary. As in Hungary and Poland, the Czech Republic underwent an exceptional qualitative shift from a system centrally planned to one that was market-based. The book concludes that despite mistakes and hardships, the overall transformation process in Central Europe has been successful.

Landscapes of Diseas. Malaria in Modern Greece

Landscapes of Diseas. Malaria in Modern Greece

Author(s): Katerina Gardikas / Language(s): English

Keywords: Malaria;Greece

Malaria has existed in Greece since prehistoric times. Its prevalence fluctuated depending on climatic, socioeconomic and political changes. The book focuses on the factors that contributed to the spreading of the disease in the years between independent statehood in 1830 and the elimination of malaria in the 1970s.By the nineteenth century, Greece was the most malarious country in Europe and the one most heavily infected with its lethal form, falciparum malaria. Owing to pressures on the environment from economic development, agrarian colonization and heightened mobility, the situation became so serious that malaria became a routine part of everyday life for practically all Greek families, further exacerbated by wars. The country’s highly fragmented geography and its variable rainfall distribution created an environment that was ideal for sustaining and spreading of diseases, which, in turn, affected the tolerance of the population to malaria. In their struggle with physical suffering and death, the Greeks developed a culture of avid quinine consumption and were likewise eager to embrace the DDT spraying campaign of the immediate post WW II years, which, overall, had a positive demographic effect.

Along Ukraine's River. A Social and Environmental History of the Dnipro

Along Ukraine's River. A Social and Environmental History of the Dnipro

Author(s): Roman Adrian Cybriwsky / Language(s): English

Keywords: Dnieper River; Ukraine; Environmental conditions; Social life and customs;

The River Dnipro (formerly better known by the Russian name of Dnieper) is intimately linked to the history and identity of Ukraine. Cybriwsky discusses the history of the river, from when it was formed and its many uses and modifications by human agencies from ancient times to the present.From key vantage points along the river’s course—its source in western Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea—interesting stories shed light on past and present life in Ukraine. Scenes set along the river from Russian and Ukrainian literature are evoked, as well as musical compositions and works of art. Topics include the legacy of the region’s cultural ancestors as the Kyivan Rus, the period of Cossack dominion, the epic battles for the river’s bridges in World War II, the building of dams and huge reservoirs by the Soviet Union, and the crisis of Chornobyl (Chernobyl). The author argues that the Dnipro and the farmlands along it are Ukraine’s chief natural resources, and that the country's future depends on putting both to good use.Written without academic pretence in an informal style with dashes of humor, Along Ukraine's River is illustrated with original line drawings, maps, and photographs.

Writing on Water. The Sounds of Jewish Prayer

Writing on Water. The Sounds of Jewish Prayer

Author(s): Judit Nirán (Frigyesi) / Language(s): English

Keywords: 20th century history; Jews; Central Europe; Judaism; Music; Performance; Holocaust; Communism;

Writing on Water grasps the phenomenon of sound in prayer, that is, a meaning in sounds and soundscapes, and a musical essence in the act of praying.The impetus for the book arose from the author’s fieldwork among traditional Jews during the era of communism in Budapest and Prague. In that period the Jewish religion and Jewishness in general were supressed and rituals became semi-secret and turned inward. The book is a witness to these communities and their rituals, but it goes beyond documentation. The uniqueness of the sounds of the rituals compelled the author to try to comprehend how melodies and soundscapes became the sustaining/protective environment, as well as the vehicle, for the expression of a world-orientation—in a situation where open discourse was inconceivable.The book is based on extensive interviews, musical recordings, photographs and scholarly analyses. It is unique in its choice of communities, its wealth of original documents, and its novel interpretation of sound.Writing on Water is creative non-fiction. The presentation is evocative and poetic, but at the same time it transmits knowledge. The book can aid research and serve in courses in philosophy, religion, music, ethnomusicology, anthropology, aesthetics, Jewish studies, folklore, oral history, and performance studies. It is also a work of art and literature.

Coca-Cola Socialism. Americanization of Yugoslav Culture in the Sixties

Coca-Cola Socialism. Americanization of Yugoslav Culture in the Sixties

Author(s): Radina Vučetić / Language(s): English

Keywords: Socialism and culture; popular culture; Yugoslavia; USA; Nineteen sixties; Foreign relations;

This book is about the Americanization of Yugoslav culture and everyday life during the nineteen-sixties. After falling out with the Eastern bloc, Tito turned to the United States for support and inspiration. In the political sphere the distance between the two countries was carefully maintained, yet in the realms of culture and consumption the Yugoslav regime was definitely much more receptive to the American model. For Titoist Yugoslavia this tactic turned out to be beneficial, stabilising the regime internally and providing an image of openness in foreign policy.Coca-Cola Socialism addresses the link between cultural diplomacy, culture, consumer society and politics. Its main argument is that both culture and everyday life modelled on the American way were a major source of legitimacy for the Yugoslav Communist Party, and a powerful weapon for both USA and Yugoslavia in the Cold War battle for hearts and minds. Radina Vučetić explores how the Party used American culture in order to promote its own values and what life in this socialist and capitalist hybrid system looked like for ordinary people who lived in a country with communist ideology in a capitalist wrapping. Her book offers a careful reevaluation of the limits of appropriating the American dream and questions both an uncritical celebration of Yugoslavia’s openness and an exaggerated depiction of its authoritarianism.

Tyrants Writing Poetry

Tyrants Writing Poetry

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Keywords: Politics and literature; Dictators in literature; Sovereignty in literature;

As conventional understanding would have it, the sometimes brutal business of governing can only be carried out at the price of distance from art, while poetic beauty best flourishes at a distance from actions executed at the pole of power. Dramatically contradicting this idea is the fact that violent rulers are often the greatest friends of art, and indeed draw attention to themselves as artists.Why do tyrants of all people often have a particularly poetic vein? Where do terror and fiction meet? The cultural history of totalitarian regimes is unwrapped in ten case studies, in a comparative perspective. The book focuses on the phenomenon that many of the great despots in history were themselves writers. By studying the artistic ambitions of Nero, Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Saparmurat Nyyazow and Radovan Karadzic, the studies explore the complicated relationship between poetry and political violence, and open our eyes for the aesthetic dimensions of total power.The essays make an important contribution to a number of fields: the study of totalitarian regimes, cultural studies, biographies of 20th century leaders. They underscore the frequent correlation between tyrannical governance and an excessive passion for language, and prove that the merging of artistic and political charisma tends to justify the claim to absolute power.