Fighting Organised Crime as a Security Threat: The Lessons Learnt from the Case of Bulgaria

Fighting Organised Crime as a Security Threat: The Lessons Learnt from the Case of Bulgaria

Author(s): Katerina Gachevska / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2012

Keywords: organised crime; security; social policy; state reform; Bulgaria

The article discusses some of the implications of the post-1989 inclusion of the problem of organised crime into the international security agenda. The analysis uses the case of Bulgaria where organised crime was identified and handled as national security threat in late 1990s in conditions of a shrinking social role of the state. This prompted a continuous and all-pervasive institutional and legislative reform with limited results which led to a growing distrust in the Bulgarian institutions.

The Social Capital as a Security Factor

The Social Capital as a Security Factor

Author(s): Zora Popova / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2012

Keywords: social capital; citizenship; civil society; security factor; EU-identity

The paper focuses on the role of social capital reconstruction after an ethnic conflict, addressing the importance of citizenship (re-)building for the political and economic development. Exploring the lessons learned from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the paper identifies several levels, at which policy efforts should be directed in order to ensure achievement of expected outcomes. Social capital is a complex mechanism that enables coherence and functioning of any societal system and especially of a state. If elements of social capital do not match, if the macro-level of social capital does not embrace a relevant micro-level, the system is in risk of failure and collapse. When a social capital of a political unit (e.g. state) is in focus, it could be regarded as a security factor. The findings can be applied to assess developments and to evaluate the stability risk in newly emerging states and countries in transition to democracy.

BETWEEN PROLOGUE AND MINIATURE – THE “MEANING OF HISTORY”

BETWEEN PROLOGUE AND MINIATURE – THE “MEANING OF HISTORY”

Author(s): Laura Lazăr Zăvăleanu / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Woman in love in eighteenth century; love as pharmakon; forbidden love; emancipation of woman; loci communes of the courtly romances in the Romanian Popular Books.

Between Prologue and Miniature – the “Meaning of History”: Notes on the Hypostases of a Woman in Love in Three Romanian Manuscripts from the End of the Eighteenth Century. This study analyses two of the most representative popular books of the period, The History of Erotocrit and Aretusa and The History of Filerot and Anthusa, focusing not only on the textual body of these narratives but also on the “theoretical” contribution of their Prologues and on the imagery of the miniatures from these valuable manuscripts. These popular romances explore the hypostases of a powerful, self-assertive femininity, confident in its spiritual force and attributes, which seeks to impose itself also as a social force to be reckoned with in a society where marriage represents a contract, and the idea of a couple still precludes the protagonists’ rights to individual freedom.

INTERTEXTUALITY IN ANGELA CARTER’S SHORT STORIES

INTERTEXTUALITY IN ANGELA CARTER’S SHORT STORIES

Author(s): Maria Măţel-Boatcă / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: children’s literature; fairy tale; folklore; history; intertextuality; parody; reference; religion.

“Intertextuality in Angela Carter’s Short Stories”. The ambiguous status of the short stories from the volume The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter, where erudite and folkloric references corroborate magic realism, engenders a questioning of the literary genre. After having differentiated between children’s literature and fairy tales, we examine the pastiche and parody elements, arguing for the parodic qualities of these texts. Our demonstration in favour of comic intentionality concludes with an analysis of intertextual and intercultural referencing.

FROM CENTRE TO MARGINS: SOUTH AFRICA MEETS THE ARAB WORLD

FROM CENTRE TO MARGINS: SOUTH AFRICA MEETS THE ARAB WORLD

Author(s): Luiza Caraivan / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: relocation; home; Arab world; South Africa; cultural diversity.

“From Centre to Margins: South Africa Meets the Arab World”.The paper analyses the new perspectives in Nadine Gordimer’s writings, focusing on her 2001 novel The Pickup. The concepts of home, relocation and cultural diversity are examined as they represent the key factors defining the two communities presented in the novel: South Africa and the Arab world.

FACTUAL AND FIGURAL: ON DANIEL MENDELSOHN’S THE LOST

FACTUAL AND FIGURAL: ON DANIEL MENDELSOHN’S THE LOST

Author(s): Mircea Crăciun / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Jewishness; Holocaust; World War II; Torah; Family Tree; Intertextuality; Hypertext.

Factual and Figural: On Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost. My intention here is to point out some of the inexhaustible hermeneutical possibilities engendered by a masterpiece that, to my knowledge, is hardly known to the Romanian readers, except, perhaps, for academic circles. Mendelsohn’s novel, The Lost, is a palimpsest account of an abominable family saga with which Truman Capote’s famous concoction “the non-fiction novel” is transgressed in a brilliant intertextual game between factual and figural.

THE GOVERNING DYNAMICS OF PATRIARCHY IN AHDAF SOUEIF’S IN THE EYE OF THE SUN

THE GOVERNING DYNAMICS OF PATRIARCHY IN AHDAF SOUEIF’S IN THE EYE OF THE SUN

Author(s): Fouad Mami / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Patriarchy; phallocracy; epistemic conditioning; societal presumptions and expectations; social code.

“The Governing Dynamics of Patriarchy in Ahdaf Soueif’s In the Eye of the Sun”. Perhaps of direct relevance to the social status of Arab women is the experience of Egyptian women proposed by the contemporary Egyptian novelist, writing in English, Ahdaf Soueif. In In the Eye of the Sun (1992), Soueif tells the story of modern, educated and middle-class Egyptian women as they bump and fall in their marriages but ultimately win their paths towards some satisfying degree of self-understanding. Soueif’s drama does not claim to be totally successful in subverting patriarchal mindsets. Instead, the author seems to have fairly gained insights at the dynamics fueling patriarchy in today’s Arab cultural climate.

MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES IN CONSTRUCTING CHICANA IDENTITY IN SANDRA CISNEROS’ SHORT STORIES

MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES IN CONSTRUCTING CHICANA IDENTITY IN SANDRA CISNEROS’ SHORT STORIES

Author(s): Amelia Nan / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: women writers; mythology; La Llorona; La Malinche; Sandra Cisneros; love; betrayal.

“Mythological Figures in Constructing Chicana Identity in Sandra Cisneros’ Short Stories”. Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros turns to the mythical-historical figure of La Malinche and La Llorona processing, reinterpreting and adding to the valences of the two mythological figures in order to rebuilt and reassert Chicana identity. The aim of this study is to investigate the way in which Sandra Cisneros remodels and reinterprets the essence of two of the most prominent mythological female figures drawn directly from the Hispanic heritage of Mexican American culture in two of her short stories, Little Miracles, Kept Promises and Woman Hollering Creek, where use of mythological figures for redefining identity is most visible.

VICTORIAN ISSUES IN OLIVER TWIST: A JORDANIAN PERSPECTIVE

VICTORIAN ISSUES IN OLIVER TWIST: A JORDANIAN PERSPECTIVE

Author(s): Sabah A. Shakury / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Victorian; children; exploitation; injustice; silence; silenced.

Victorian Issues in Oliver Twist: A Jordanian Perspective. The purpose of this study is to explore an important topic in the Victorian novel from a Jordanian perspective: Dickens's protest against the social conditions of his age and the moral codes which justified those conditions. In Oliver Twist Dickens describes children as the helpless victims of the new industrial world. He uses particular people and places as a context for his presentation of the “strange disease” of modern life.

“ARE YOU WRITING YOUR GREAT BOOK, I MEAN THE FINAL ONE?” IRIS MURDOCH IN 2010

“ARE YOU WRITING YOUR GREAT BOOK, I MEAN THE FINAL ONE?” IRIS MURDOCH IN 2010

Author(s): Sofia De Melo Araújo / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Iris Murdoch; Review; 2010 Publications; Peter J. Conradi; Mustafa Kirca; Şule Okuroğlu; Miles Leeson; Priscilla Martin; Anne Rowe; David Morgan; Avril Horner; M. F. Simone Roberts; Alison Scott-Baumann.

“Are you writing your great book, I mean the final one?”Iris Murdoch in 2010. 2010, a decade since the death of Iris Murdoch, saw the coming to light of vast production on this author’s literary and philosophical work. These last three years as a whole have witnessed vast interest in the study of Murdoch worldwide. From the work coming out in 2010, I chose to highlight seven particular publications, quite distinct among themselves. This contribution is a comparative review of those works.

HISTORY AND MEMORY IN THE OLD SOUTH: CONSTRUCTIONS OF FEMALE IDENTITY IN KATHERINE ANNE PORTER’S THE OLD ORDER

HISTORY AND MEMORY IN THE OLD SOUTH: CONSTRUCTIONS OF FEMALE IDENTITY IN KATHERINE ANNE PORTER’S THE OLD ORDER

Author(s): Iulia-Andreea Milică / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Southern culture; female identity; memory; history; otherness; race.

“History and Memory in the Old South: Constructions of Female Identity in Katherine Anne Porter’s The Old Order”. History and memory are, for many Southern writers, important elements in the process of shaping the Southern mind. In this context, growing up in the South is a complicated phenomenon, the young Southerner being split between pressures of the family past and traditions and his or her personal ideals. Female identity formation in the South is an even more intricate matter in a world dominated by the authority of the white male, in which white women and black slaves share, in different degrees, a submissive position and are forced to cope with this situation. The purpose of the paper is to examine the construction of female identity in the old South, as it was depicted by Katherine Anne Porter in the collection of short stories The Old Order.

TRANSFEMINIZING POSTFEMINISM: ACKER RE-WRITES THE TRANS-, BAISE-MOI RE-READS THE POST-

TRANSFEMINIZING POSTFEMINISM: ACKER RE-WRITES THE TRANS-, BAISE-MOI RE-READS THE POST-

Author(s): Eduardo Barros Grela / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Postfeminism; body and space; multiplicity; transfeminism; Kathy Acker.

“Transfeminizing Postfeminism: Acker Re-Writes the Trans-, Baise-Moi Re-Reads the Post-”. Through the discussion of Kathy Acker’s novels Great Expectations (1982) and In Memoriam to Identity (1990), and Virginie Despentes´s film Baise Moi, this article discusses the different ramifications of postfeminism—in particular, transfeminism. Space is used here to reveal—and contest—new forms of women objectification.

MADAME DE MAINTENON AND THE ROMANIAN CULTURE

MADAME DE MAINTENON ET LA CULTURE ROUMAINE

Author(s): Ileana Mihaila / Language(s): French / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Françoise d’Aubigné; Marquise de Maintenon; 17th century French literature; Eugenia Scriban; Constantin Şăineanu; Ana Davila; Dora d’Istria; female education; literary reception.

Madame de Maintenon et la culture roumaine. The purpose of this paper is to offer an outline of Madame de Maintenon’s reception in Romanian culture. Her name, although unknown as a writer, may be found in Romanian newspapers as early as 1907. Several articles in the literary journals would be dedicated to Madame de Maintenon. They presented her personality, her life, and her rich correspondence, through which “she went down into French literary history”.

FROM KATHERINE MANSFIELD TO BONNIE BURNARD

FROM KATHERINE MANSFIELD TO BONNIE BURNARD

Author(s): Mihaela Mudure / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: childhood; postcolonial; Katherine Mansfield; Bonnie Burnard; music lesson.

From Katherine Mansfield to Bonnie Burnard. This paper is a comparative close reading of two short stories: Katherine Mansfield’s The Wind Blows and Bonnie Burnard’s Music Lessons. The comparison leads to more general conclusions about the importance of the image of the child in post-colonial literatures.

BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

Author(s): Amelia Nan,Anca – Ioana Maier,Andreea Gianina Bera / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Southern Identity with Flannery O’Connor. Iulia Andreea Blănuţă - Southern Cultural Dimensions in Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction. Iulia Andreea Blănuţă. Iaşi: Universitas XXI, 2008. 302 pp. An Indian Approach to Classical and Modern Literature. The Atlantic Critical Review, vol. 8, no. 3 and 4,2010. The Portrayal of an Age: Elizabethan England. Percec, Dana, Andreea Şerban & Andreea Verteş-Olteanu, Anglia Elizabetană – Ghid de istorie culturală (Elizabethan England – A Cultural History Guide), Timişoara, Editura Eurostampa, 2010, 272p.

THE DEIRDRE LEGEND REVISITED BY YEATS, SYNGE, AND LADY GREGORY. A TURKISH PERSPECTIVE

THE DEIRDRE LEGEND REVISITED BY YEATS, SYNGE, AND LADY GREGORY. A TURKISH PERSPECTIVE

Author(s): Gönül Bakay / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Irish; mythology; woman; idealization; heroic; love; death.

“The Deirdre Legend Revisited by Yeats, Synge, and Lady Gregory. A Turkish Perspective”. This paper deals with the different treatment of the Deirdre legend by three Irish authors: Synge, Yeats, and Lady Gregory. What linked these writers was their desire to prove the artistic and the conceptual value of Irish mythology. It is also important to point to the important role the idealized Irish woman played in this mythology, an element which is particularly relevant for a Turkish reader of these texts.

FEMININE DISSIDENCE. A POLITICAL CHALLENGE OF FEMININE POETICS

LA DISSIDENCE AU FÉMININ (1945-1989). UN DÉFI POLITIQUE DE LA POÉTIQUE FÉMININE

Author(s): Corina Boldeanu / Language(s): French / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: Women Poetry; Communism; Dissidence; Ethics; Nina Cassian; Ana Blandiana; Ileana Mălăncioiu; Mariana Marin.

“Feminine Dissidence. A Political Challenge of Feminine Poetics”.The paper focuses on Romanian women poetry written under the Communist Regime in order to see the influences of a totalitarian regime upon this poetry. The approach is emphasized on the writing of four poets belonging to different generations with the aim of revealing the common denominator of their work that goes in the direction of lyrical impersonalization based on ethical responsibility.

A BACHELOR WITH DIFFERENT SENSITIVITIES. ANOTHER WAY TO INTERPRET THE CHARACTER OF GOUVERNAIL FROM « A RESPECTABLE WOMAN » BY KATE CHOPIN

UN CÉLIBATAIRE AUX SENSIBILITÉS DIFFÉRENTES. UNE RE-LECTURE QUEER DE GOUVERNAIL DANS« A RESPECTABLE WOMAN » PAR KATE CHOPIN

Author(s): Zénó Vernyik / Language(s): French / Issue: 4/2011

Keywords: homographesis; compulsory heterosexuality; queer; love triangle; masculinity.

"Un célibataire aux sensibilités différentes. Une re-lecture queer de Gouvernail dans « A Respectable Woman » par Kate Chopin". This paper deals with Gouvernail, a literate, urban intellectual from the story “A Respectable Woman” by Kate Chopin. Our claim is that we may read this text in a way that is thoroughly different from the usual readings. Namely, we claim that the heterosexual love triangle from the story veils a sexually more controversial one. Our reading strategy is homographesis, which means identifying a textual occurrence that has more than one possible signifieds. In our case, the compulsory story, veils the subversive other and, thus, unveils a radically different, queer text.

Zizek's fable about the protests in BiH

Žižekova bajka o prosvjedima u BiH

Author(s): Nino Raspudić / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 17/2014

Kao što se čovjeku u pustinji koji dugo pati od žeđi u jednom trenutku na horizontu počne priviđati velika vodena masa, tako se i neopreznijim marksistima u pustinji povijesti nakon dugotrajne žudnje za događajima koji bi potvrđivali njihove teorije počnu ukazivati stvari kojih nema. Prije četiri dana Slavoj Žižek čitateljima Guardiana ispričao je lijepu bajku o prosvjednicima u „Bosni“, koji zajedno nose bošnjačku, srpsku i hrvatsku zastavu, čime su, u zemlji koju su donedavno razdirali međunacionalni sukobi, praktično potvrdili marksistička predviđanja. Socijalni bunt je poništio sve druge, ideološki nametnute sukobe, pokazavši što je temeljno. Bajka ukratko govori sljedeće – nacionalni lideri, brutalni kapitalisti, zavadili su i podijelili divan, pošten narod, kako bi potom svatko od njih izrabljivao svoje. No kad je kap prelila čašu, gladni narod se pobunio, izašao iz rovova, zagrlio se i noseći sve zastave zajedno krenuo protiv pravih, zajedničkih neprijatelja, mrskih kapitalista i njihovih slugu.

Analysis of a long process of introducing constitutional asymmetry from the perspective of its acceptability for different groups

Analiza dugotrajnog procesa uvođenja ustavne asimetričnosti iz perspektive njegove prihvatljivosti za različite grupe

Author(s): Faris Čengić / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 17/2014

U ovom tekstu je skraćeno iznesena studija Devolution iz projekta British Social Attitudes 30 koja je u nastavku korištena kao uzorak za testiranje određenih aspekata situacije u BiH glede problema decentralizacije iz perspektive prihvatljivosti novih ustavnih rješenja za različite grupe. Čini se da postoji mnogo paralela ili u najmanju ruku sličnih tendencija u UK i BiH po spomenutim pitanjima. Neke od takvih su: postojeća ustavna asimetričnost obje države, slično ponašanje većinskih nasuprot manjinskih nacionalnih/ etničkih zajednica, nepostizanje rezultata u smislu stabilnosti ili jačanja državnog nadidentita niti u jednoj državi