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This study focuses on the reflection of the relationship between the army and ideology in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. The main attention is paid to the issue of membership of Czechoslovak People's Army officers in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia before 1968. Through the analysis of oral-historical interviews, the author follows the narrative and legitimizing strategies of rejecting or accepting party membership, which was one of the conditions of career growth in the military during the period under review. An important factor in (re) constructing narrators’ memories in this case is the current media image of the communist regime in Czech society.
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Proč je stále v oblibě chalupářství v českých zemích
Petra Schindler-Wisten's monograph titled "About holiday homes and people: Holiday homes in the Czech Lands in the period of so-called normalization and transformation" (Prague: Univerzita Karlova and Karolinum, 2017) maps the phenomenon of holiday cottages in the Czech Lands since its very beginnings in the 19th century almost until today. In this respect, she focuses on the post-war period of the Communist regime, in particular the 1970s and 1980s, the years of the so-called normalization, when this type of spending one’s free time, and partly also a lifestyle consisting in spending weekends and holidays in own houses and cottages, indeed became a mass phenomenon in Czechoslovakia. Using results of oral history research, she is looking for reasons why the so-called “second housing” became so popular among various groups of the Czech society, social and economic differences notwithstanding. The reviewer appreciates the publication as the first attempt to deal with the topic in question in a clear and comprehensive manner and from a historical point of view rather than from sociological or socio-geographic ones, which represents a significant factual enrichment of the current state of knowledge. However, she also formulates some methodological reservations with respect to the research project whose results are presented in reviewed work, claiming that not enough clear reasons have been given to justify its starting points and outlining untapped opportunities in this respect.
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In November 1997, Simon Wiesenthal gave an interview to the historian Albert Lichtblau. For five days, he talked tirelessly about his life, his work, his fate. The 11-hour interview became part of the USC Shoah Foundation’s testimonies collection on the Holocaust. In January/February 2020, the VWI presented this unique contemporary source document in the Austrian Film Museum on six consecutive Sunday afternoons – each time to a full house. After each screening, experts and contemporaries of Wiesenthal were invited by the VWI to comment on what they had seen, deepening the narrative in a moderated discussion and contributing their own experiences and memories, both academic and anecdotal.
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Beszélgetés a 60 éves Öllös Lászlóval
László Öllös, political philosopher, associate professor, president of the Forum Minority Research Institute speaks about his professional trajectories, the communist regime, events of the 1968 revolution in Czechoslovakia, opposition activities, the Velvet Revolution in 1989, political transition in the CEE countries. He also details his public activities, theoretical and research work focusing on human rights, national rights, ethnic minority rights, constitutional issues, national identity, civil society. Among his special spheres of interest belong issues such as Slovak–Hungarian reconciliation, national division, European identity, political community, constitutional value system.
More...spomin na prosti čas in delo žensk v obdobju socialistične Slovenije
In her contribution the author focuses on understanding the interconnection of work and leisure time in the period of the socialist Slovenia/Yugoslavia (1945-1991). She is interested in the meaning that women ascribed to their leisure time (understood as a reward for the workers during socialism) in comparison with gainful employment. She also pays special attention to the issue of how women experienced their leisure time in comparison with unpaid housekeeping and through the perspective of the so-called »double burden« in socialism, and how they experience it today, in the context of the capitalist market economy. The contribution is based on the fieldwork analysis, focused on the interviews with retired women, revealing their everyday life on the micro level. The goal of the »oral history« approach, used in the contribution, is not to reconstruct the socialist past and record it chronologically, but to present the perspective based on the women’s experience and their everyday practices, contributing an additional perspective to the existing official political and economic history descriptions.
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The term “Wedding party cemeteries” in oral tales and epic from Bosnia and Herzegovina describes deserted, unknown old cemeteries or certain tomb stones, mainly stone ones, for which people do not remember the time of their erection nor the deceased which were buried there. The oral tales about ’’wedding party cemeteries” tell that those are graves of Wedding party participants who met there a long time ago, and according to the old custom, fought with each other and lost their lives. In reality, in most cases these are medieval necropolis from 14th - 15th century, or some small Muslim village cemeteries from different periods of the Ottoman Empire. ’’Wedding party cemeteries” and oral tales about them can be found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as other territories in Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and some parts of Croatia.
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Európa šedivie. Staroba a starnutie sa tak stále častejšie stávajú predmetom mediálneho, sociálno-politického i výskumníckeho záujmu. Subjektívne prežívanie tejto životnej etapy i starnutia ako procesu je však v stredoeurópskom prostredí v sociálnych vedách skúmané málo. Ľubicu Voľanskú zaujímali motivácie správania sa a činností starých ľudí, ich postoje k vlastnému správaniu a konaniu a k správaniu a konaniu iných, ako sú zobrazené v ich autobiografických textoch. V monografii sleduje ambivalentné vnímanie staroby vo verejnom a odbornom diskurze prepojené s vnímaním starými ľuďmi v súvislosti s hranicami staroby. Bežne kladené otázky: Kto je starý? Ako možno stanoviť časovú alebo inú hranicu, odkedy je človek starý? necháva zodpovedať svojich partnerov a partnerky vo výskume. Ich výpovede dáva do kontextu širokej odbornej literatúry, ktorá sa hranicou staroby a prežívaním staroby zaoberá.
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The motif of the apocalypse has fascinated mankind from the very beginnings of oral history and is present in various myths and religious traditions, finding its expression in the art of all time periods. Even today it hasn't lost its grip on human imagination. In modern Islamic contexts, the phenomenon of the apocalypse incorporates anti-western ideologies, which reflect, to a large extent the socio-cultural heritage of former anti-colonialist struggles, as well as the anti-imperialist attitudes which are present in a large number of contemporary Muslim societies. When paired with apocalyptic narratives, these notions can lead to negative essentializations of so-called "western morals and ethics", which are subsequently interpreted as a clear sign of the End times. Aside from the wider consideration of the symbolism of Islamic apocalyptic narratives, the paper will deal with a critical analysis of the visualizations of the Signs of the Last Day books by religious author Hayrun Yahya, who considers the topic of the apocalypse, as presented in the Koran and hadiths, in an affirmative light. We will attempt to puzzle out why the textual version of Signs utilizes certain quotes from the hadiths, while other, equally relevant quotes are avoided. We will rely on the so-called "interdiscursive" aspect of the enclosed quasi– documentary film, or rather, the heterogeneous elements which make up its audio-visual "text". This analysis should uncover the ideological notions behind this specific instrumentalization of scripture for the aim of religious, cultural and moral critique of contemporary (both Muslim and non-Muslim) societies; however, we will also attempt to point out the multifunctional idea – suggested to the viewing/reading audience of apocalyptic narratives – that Judgment day is near, and can come around at any moment.
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One widespread proverb in Bulgaria, knowing some different versions, says that “Man, who did not passed conscription is not a man”, “A boy, who failed to enter military service is second-hand man”, “A man, who has not walked as a soldier knows nothing”. What exactly is conscription according to public understanding of Bulgarians? What attitudes have the society to compulsory conscription? Frontier of what is the portal on the military unit? These and other issues related to conscription during socialism will be explored.
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The article presents an oral history project “Conversations Gathered by Mara and Kazys Almenas, 1965–1977”. The little-known material is housed at the Lithuanian Research and Studies Center in Chicago, USA. On June 14 and July 23, 1965, Kazys Almenas interviewed the spouses Zinaida Nagytė-Katiliškienė (pen-name Liūnė Sutema) and Marius Katiliškis, both known as the Katiliškiai. In the interview, the two prominent Lithuanian émigré writers reminiscence about their contemporaries Antanas Škėma (1910–1961), Algimantas Mackus (1932–1964), and Julius Kaupas (1920–1964). All three were writers too and good acquaintances of the Katiliškiai, and in the cases of Mackus and Kaupas, very close friends. The conversations point to many interesting quotidian and non-quotidian details about the life of Lithuanian writers in Germany after WWII and later in the U.S. Antanas Škėma, his personality and works, receive special attention. By talking about their fellow writers, Zinaida Nagytė-Katiliškienė and Marius Katiliškis also reveal their own aesthetic creative principles. The two interviews present them not only as writers but also as a married couple with its specific dynamics and respect for each other and each other’s works.
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The article is a twofold attempt: at re‑reading the category of a topos after the Shoah and at interpreting the particular record of the oral history in the context of the liminal metamorphoses the notion of the topoi – crucial in European culture and literature – has undergone. In the first part of the text, the author recapitulates the studies on the aforementioned category – from Aristoteles to the twentieth century scholars (Curtius, Lausberg, Ziomek, Abramowska, Panas); in the second part, she tries to apply it in interpretative practice.
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Folk-calendar terminology is an expression of the national specificity of cultures. This makes its studying promising within the framework of the tendencies for ‘European-style thinking’ which have emerged since the beginning of the 21st century. The article examines St. George’s Day customs and rituals in their ethnolinguistic aspect. G’erg’ewd’en (Vch, Cub, Chsh), G’ergyovd’en (A, G, Kam, Dl, Z), G’ergyochd’en (A) , G’ergyouud’en(Kr), Gyorguvd’en (Kul), Gyorguud’en (R), Gerg’ofden (Cyr), G’argyovd’an (DN), Gergiuden (Or) – the largest and richest – in a ritual sense – spring religious vestive-ritual complex of the Bessarabian Bulgarians, which is celebrated on the 6th of May (on the 23rd of April old style) and is dedicated to the Christian saint George, who is – in the folk tradition – the protector of shepherds and flocks. The paper attempts to systematize and explore the peculiarities of the cultural dialect associated with St. George’s Day ritual sequence.
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The study examines the current practice of celebrating Theophany on the Nera River (January 19th on the on Calendar of the Serbian Orthodox church marks the day Jesus Christ was baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist), based on field surveys conducted in Poljadija (Romania, settlements Langovet / Lugovet (Romanian: Câmpia), Zlatica (Rom. Zlatiţa) and Sokolovac (Rom. Socol)). Namely, a ritual procession was (re)established there since 1990: after the liturgy, a religious procession proceeds to Nera, where a priest performs the sanctification of the river; swimming for the Holy Cross became part of the ritual praxis as well; apart from the inhabitants of the borderland villages, Sokolovac (Romania) and Vračev Gaj (Serbia), church dignitaries and representatives of political institutions also take part in the ritual. The first part of the paper offers an overview of the basic historical data related to the Serbian community in Romania in recent history, as a basis for a better understanding of the historical events and realia mentioned by the interlocutors in their Theophany-related discourse. The second part reviews the ethnographic descriptions of the Theophany celebrations in this area dated before 1990, as well as commented transcripts of field interviews. The third segment appraises the functions of the Theophany on Nera as a topic in public discourse (local media and newsletters of the Serbian minority in Romania, Serbian media, including web portals aimed at a wider audience, the Facebook page Theophany on Nera, as well as content from other social networks). Finally, the concluding chapter views the current practice in an ideologicalhistorical context (retraditionalization in post-socialist societies, homogenization of national identities, etc.), in the context of the “spectacularization” of rituals, and in the context of border studies. The boundary thus proves to be a stratified, layered and processual phenomenon in the interlocutors’ view, and the real (rethought) ritual and customary practice (now institutionalized and “spectacularized”) of celebrating Epiphany on the Nera also takes on new meanings: it is no longer merely a ritual in the realm of traditional culture, but also a way of publicly manifesting the common (ethnic and cultural) identity of Serbain communities on both sides of the border, having become not only cultural symbolic capital but a form of potentially political symbolic capital as well.
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Centenary activities of Community Centre "Miladinovi Brothers" are filled with significant educational and cultural events known at home and abroad.
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Along with the differences between the various organizational units of the territoryin relation to the time and manner of conducting the fighting, Ilinden Uprising and its leaders largely reminiscent of the April Uprising and the apostles of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee.
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