Пространства на затваряне и динамики на институционализация: семейната грижа за хора с увреждания в България

Author(s): Galina Goncharova,Ina Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 59/2023

The main focus of the article are the families of children with disabilities in Bulgaria as spaces that generate and affirm institutional culture. We conceptualise them as situated in a complex of legacies and current conditions that are deeply disabling in their very essence. It is these elements that drive families of children with disabilities in Bulgaria to almost invariably take on basic institutional characteristics. We highlight the dynamics and interactions of the traumatic images of the legacy of state socialism, the actual barriers during the transition period, the coping strategies chosen by families and, ultimately, the grim effects with regard to the affirmation and implementation of the idea of independent living for people with disabilities in Bulgaria.

Systematic Collection of Memories Organized by the Jewish Museum in Prague

Author(s): Anna Hyndráková,Anna Lorencová / Language(s): English Issue: 1/1992

The paper is about the systematic collection of memories organized by the Jewish Museum in Prague. The paper describes the purpose, methods, and challenges of documenting the testimonies of Jewish survivors and witnesses of the Nazi Holocaust, as well as their helpers and friends. The paper also provides a list of the first hundred interviewees and their brief biographies. The paper aims to preserve the historical evidence and personal stories of the Jewish fate during World War II, as well as to facilitate further research and education on this topic.

Die jüdische Verkettung deutscher Identität

Author(s): Michael Wolffsohn / Language(s): German Issue: 1/1992

The author explores the complex and paradoxical relationship between German and Jewish identity after the Holocaust, arguing that both identities are inextricably linked by history, trauma, and memory. He examines how the Holocaust has shaped the German and Jewish sense of “we”, and how both groups have used judenpolitik (Jewish policy) as a signal and instrument of their political and moral renewal. He also analyzes the role of history, religion, and Israel in defining and preserving German and Jewish identity, and the challenges and opportunities of the post-Cold War era and the German reunification for both groups.

Gaëlle Fisher: Resettlers und Survivors

Author(s): Günther F. Guggenberger / Language(s): German Issue: 4/2023

Review of: Gaëlle Fisher: Resettlers und Survivors. Bukovina and the Politics of Belonging in West Germany and Israel, 1945−1989. (Worlds of Memory, Bd. 3.) Berghahn. New York – Oxford 2020. 291 S. ISBN 978-1-78920-667-8.

PANEL: NACIONALIZAM, NACIONALNA PROŠLOST I KOVID-19 U SRBIJI

Author(s): Ana Đorđević,Siniša Malešević,Lea David,Gordana Uzelac,Aleksej J. Kišjuhas,Jelena Pešić,Rastislav Dinić,Tamara Petrović Trifunović,Zoran Panović,Filip Balunović,Milovan Pisarri,Aleksandar Pavlović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2022

Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju i Dablinski univerzitetski koledž (University College Dublin) organizovali su panel diskusiju „Nacionalizam, nacionalna prošlost i kovid-19 u Srbiji“ 7. marta 2022. godine. Učesnici panela bili su Siniša Malešević (Dablinski univerzitetski koledž), Lea David (Dablinski univerzitetski koledž), Gordana Uzelac (Univerzitet Metropolitan London), Aleksej Kišjuhas (Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Novom Sadu), Jelena Pešić (Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu), Rastislav Dinić (Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Nišu), Tamara Petrović Trifunović (Institut za sociološka istraživanja Filozofskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Beogradu), Zoran Panović (Demostat), Filip Balunović (IFDT), Milovan Pisarri (IFDT) i Aleksandar Pavlović (IFDT). Diskusiju su moderirali Ana Đorđević (IFDT) i Milivoj Bešlin (IFDT).

Krew rosyjskiej geografii. Granica zapomnienia Siergieja Lebiediewa

Author(s): Michał Milczarek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 184/2023

The text contains an interpretation of Sergei Lebedev’s Oblivion (2010). The main problem of the book is the intergenerational trauma from the Stalinist era. Its mechanisms have been described in reference to the psychoanalytic tradition. The post-catastrophic image of the Russian Far North presented in the novel was also interpreted. It has been compared to descriptions of radical evil and juxtaposed with Giorgio Agamben’s homo sacer. The writings of Jacques Derrida were also employed, which turned out to be helpful in describing the phenomenon of splitting traumatic „Self”, the present and death, as well as the politics of memory and living with the specters of dead people.

Is History Doomed to Divide or May It Unite? The Role of Memory in Shaping International Relations in Central Europe

Author(s): Wojciech Roszkowski / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2023

The main research question is whether history is doomed to divide or whether it may unite. The author argues that, on the one hand, the rejection of the concept of truth in historiography may lead to treating history as a reservoir of selective argument in political struggles. In this sense, history will always divide. However, on the other hand, truth may be achieved. Scholars have several ways to test how far from the truth is a statement concerning history. There are six basic rules to test it, which are discussed in the article. The concept of national identity, culture perceived as the backbone of national identity and the regional cooperation context are examined.

BAC, U KRY! Space, Albanian Commemoration and the Gheg Variety as a Linguistic Symbol of State Independence in Postwar Kosovo

Author(s): Uranela Demaj,Aida Alla / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2023

This paper investigates the reconstruction of Albanian identity in Kosovo after the region’s transformation to state independence in 2008. The cultural environment emerged as a site of ethnic appropriation and contestation in the longstanding interethnic struggles between the Albanians and the Serbs. The study examines the socio-symbolic and linguistic manifestations of national identity in Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo, through the lens of Linguistic Landscape Studies. The first aspect of the study investigates M. Theresa Boulevard, the central promenade of the city and a site of memory and commemoration, to highlight how the period of South Slavic hegemony in Kosovo and the recent interethnic war resulted in a redefinition of Albanian identity. The second aspect of the study focuses on the written manifestation of the Gheg variety of Albanian as a symbol of Kosovo’s independence. Through this dual focus on memory and language, the study aims to arrive at an understanding of how new national and political self-identifications are shaped in contexts that have undergone ethno-political conflicts and socio-political shifts. We argue that the symbolic configuration of Kosovo suggests a redefinition of Kosovo-based Albanian identity following the transformation to state independence. The study contributes to an understanding of the multi-layered redefinition of Albanian identity in Kosovo, calling attention to language and memory in the process of constructing national identities in postwar contexts.

Jáchymov: Borders of Oblivion

Author(s): Robert Kulmiński / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2023

The remarkably dynamic history of the small Czech town of Jáchymov provides the possibility of tracing memory, forgetting and recalling through constant rewriting and negotiation – both of a place of the individual memories, as well as the hierarchy of the events which are worthy of being remembered, and those that would rather be forgotten. German, Soviet, and Czech presence here cross with the spa and military nature of this place and its martyrological memory, on one side of the transfer of the German population shortly after World War II, and on the other one the political prisoners of the 1950s, who were forced into slave labor in the local uranium mine. All of these layers still remain today – referring to the title of the book by Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska – remembered in Jáchymov’s summer landscape, in which the air is breaking the image of reality, making it fluid, and somewhat elusive. And it is this variety of the layers of memory, recalling, and oblivion, which I would like to identify and describe in my article.

Iron Curtain in Aš: Socialist Heritage and Its Destiny after 1990

Author(s): Linda Kovářová,Jan Krajíček,Albert J. Šturma / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2023

This paper presents collaborative interdisciplinary research on the mixed natural and cultural heritage of the former Iron Curtain in the Czech town of Aš. Sociocultural anthropology, history, and geobotanical and environmental studies were the main disciplines that were equally involved. The former Iron Curtain is one of Europe’s longest linear landscape features and an exceptional symbol of European history. The researched area covers the Czech-Bavarian and Czech-Saxonian borders, mainly the Aš spur. The research investigates the impacts of the long-term existing isolated strip of land of the Iron Curtain both on natural and sociocultural levels. It further examines the post-socialist transformation of the given area and the elements and processes of redefining local memory and identity through handling the local Iron Curtain heritage.

Thanksgiving

Author(s): Piotr Jakub Fereński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1-2/2023

Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday has been celebrated in the United States since 1789. The origins are related to thanking God for the blessings that the settlers received in the New World, first for bountiful harvests, and then also for victories in battles. The holiday still serves to emphasize the importance of the community, for which the past year was successful. The celebrations are both religious and secular. However, the question remains for whom this land was “new”, for whom it was “fertile” and who could enjoy prosperity and victories in armed conflicts? Thanksgiving is a joy and a manifestation of national unity, but it can also be seen as a symbol of concealing the violence, inequality and exploitation on which the USA was founded. The author analyzes Thanksgiving Day in the collective memory context, developing the theoretical concepts of Paul Connerton and Paul Ricœur.

Nowa żelazna kurtyna?

Author(s): Maria Hlavajova,Dorota Sajewska,Paweł Sztarbowski,Madina Tlostanova / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2023

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the continent”. Do those famous words spoken by Winston Churchill in 1946, which for years confirmed the simple dichotomy of Europe, still hold true? Did the breakthrough of 1989 really change the semantics of the concepts of East and West? In recent years, the metaphor of the “new Iron Curtain” has been reappearing more and more often. The still present inferiority complex of the periphery, populist governments based on nationalist and anti-European slogans, and, finally, the war in Ukraine and mass migrations strongly influence the creation of new divisions, but also provide an opportunity to create a new balance of power and a community far from right-wing populism and, at the same time, devoid of Western-centric hegemony. Today, the question of new European solidarity also becomes a question about the possibility of a new world and the values on which it is to be based”. A record of a debate held at the Powszechny Theatre as part of the Forum of the Future of Culture 2023.

Introduction: Shifting Literary Culture since Stagnation in the Brezhnev Era: The Baltic Paradigm

Author(s): Eva Eglāja-Kristsone,Jānis Oga / Language(s): English Issue: 51/2023

Towards Humanism and Stylistic Diversity: The “Open System” of Socialist Realism in Latvian Artwriting of the Stagnation Era

Author(s): Stella Pelše / Language(s): English Issue: 51/2023

The aim of the article is to analyze the “open” phase of Socialist Realism in Latvian artwriting. This phase largely originated from the Russian literary scholar Dmitrij Markov’s mid-1970s statements about the “historically open system of the truthful representation of life”. The opposition between “open” and “closed” systems is possibly related to Austrian biologist Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s general systems theory. Historian of aesthetics Pēteris Zeile was the most prolific writer who Latvianized this “open” phase, combining topical Soviet viewpoints with Latvian cultural examples. Other authors (art historians Rasma Lāce and Skaidrīte Cielava, painter Pēteris Postažs) also reflected on the diversity of this doctrine along with the preservation of Marxist worldview and foundations of fine arts. Anthropologist Alexei Yurchak’s version of Soviet official rituals focuses on performative reproduction rather than literal meanings, thus emphasizing that unpredictable meanings lead to a system’s disintegration. Soviet art theory too can be likened to such ritualized acts. Modernized thinking on art, launched by the Thaw, was tamed and integrated into the official discourse in the 1970s; the progressing openness, however, fell into ever sharper contradiction to its obligatory status, finally removed only by the collapse of the political system and its associated ideology in 1991.

Zili dzeltenā Rīga

Author(s): Rita Grīnvalde / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 54/2024

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 immediately drew condemnation from democracies worldwide, prompting calls for action at both official and societal levels. In the early days of the war, Riga’s public urban landscape, particularly the historic city centre, underwent noticeable changes, as it became increasingly adorned with the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag. This symbolic display of support for Ukraine, expressed through visual mediums such as flags, protest artworks, clothing, and accessories, reveals the civic solidarity and wartime activism of Latvian society. The article is part of a broader study encompassing visual ethnography and urban studies, focusing specifically on the 2022 online survey titled Ukrainian Flags in Latvia. Through thematic analysis, the article aims to address the research question: How do individuals manifest and justify the use of the Ukrainian flag and its colour symbolism on a personal level? Insights from the responses of 93 participants shed light on their individual experiences, motivating factors, and personal reasons for displaying Ukrainian flags and colours in Riga and other locations across Latvia. Furthermore, engagement with the ongoing war in Ukraine and interaction with war refugees have contributed to a deeper understanding of Ukrainian culture among respondents. The survey responses also offer reflections on the challenges of living in geopolitically uncertain conditions and evidence of conflicts arising from clashes of values and beliefs.

THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMEMORATING THE WORLD WAR I CENTENARY AS AN ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE OF THE ATTITUDES TOWARDS THAT WAR IN CROATIA

Author(s): Vijoleta Herman Kaurić / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The commemoration of the World War I Centenary (2014–2018) was the most important social event in the last decade in the developed countries of Western Europe, especially Britain and France, and in the former British dominions, Canada and Australia. In contrast to these victorious countries, the countries defeated in the war (primarily Germany and Austria) had a significantly more modest and different approach to the commemoration. The emphasis was on all war victims, soldiers and civilians, regardless of which side of the war they had fought on. Since Croatia, as a former part of Austria-Hungary, found itself in a completely new state union after it was united with the Kingdom of Serbia after the war, veterans were ill-advised to mention their participation in the war on the wrong side. It was no better after the end of World War II, when one victor's narrative replaced another, and made the mentioning of formerly existing monarchies completely unacceptable. All these facts influenced attitudes towards World War I, which was almost completely forgotten in Croatia over time.

At the Threshold of Stagnation: Reflections on Soviet Reality of the Late 1960s in the Novels of Alberts Bels

Author(s): Mārtiņš Mintaurs / Language(s): English Issue: 52/2023

The aim of this paper is to provide a contextual insight in the story of two novels written by Alberts Bels in the late 1960s: Izmeklētājs (The Investigator) published in 1966, and Bezmiegs (Insomnia), which was written in 1967 but denied publication by Latvian SSR officials. Analysis of the situation in the Latvian SSR at the time in question allows us to understand the reception of Bels’s published novel by the literary critics of that time, as well as the conditions that prevented the publication of his second novel. Instead of providing a textual analysis of the novels’ poetic and stylistic qualities, my intention is to look at these literary texts as indicators of the cultural and political situation of that period.

VABADUSSÕJA PÄRAND, LAIDONERI „AKTIIVNE KAITSE“ JA EESTI SÕJAVÄE VALMISTUMINE SÕJAKS 1930. AASTATEL

Author(s): Kaarel Piirimäe / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 21/2023

Oskust teha Esimesest maailmasõjast õigeid järeldusi on peetud sõdadevahelise perioodi sõjalise efektiivsuse võtmeteguriks. Eestit võib vaadelda kui riiki, mis toetus eelmises sõjas edu toonud kontseptsioonidele ja praktikale, mille muutis anakronistlikuks enne Teist maailmasõda aset leidnud kiire ühiskondlik ja sõjanduslik areng. Paraku saavad igasugused hinnangud Eesti sõjaväe võimetele 1939. aastal ja 1940. aastatel toetuda vaid kaudsetele tõenditele ja spekulatsioonidele, sest Eesti poliitiline ja sõjaväeline juhtkond otsustas mitte võidelda. Otsust alistuda Nõukogude Liidu ülekaaluka jõu ees võib isegi pidada märgiks, et tunnetati realistlikult väikeriigi piiratud võimalusi. Teisest küljest annavad sõjaväejuhtide küsitavad operatsioonilised ja taktikalised ideed ning šabloonsed ja liigoptimistlikud sõjaväemanöövrite stsenaariumid, mis torkasid silma välisriikide sõjaväeatašeedele, põhjust analüüsida kriitiliselt 1930. aastate Eesti sõjalist ettevalmistust.

THE NEW ROMANIAN GEOPOLITICAL SCHOOL. RESEARCH TOPICS AND INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT

Author(s): Eugen Străuţiu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

In interwar Romania, a geopolitical school of exceptional quality operated, which explained the reasons for the Romanian state as it was unified in 1918, and proposed solutions for its consolidation in the Romanian geopolitical space. After a period of quasi-ignorance and hostility to geopolitics, after 1989 it forcefully returned to the attention of scholars and the public. The new research directions aim at the recovery of the interwar school, the systematization and interpretation of classical theories, and the approach of Romanian interests in the new geopolitical context. Universities, private research organizations, publishing houses, and journals mobilized for this purpose. A body of specialized experts has produced an impressive number of volumes, studies, and articles. We aim to list, as close as possible to reality, these publications, to classify them, to measure their usefulness, and to identify the beneficiaries. We will thus demonstrate that a new geopolitical school operates in Romania, in direct descent from the classical one.

”ROMÂNII DIN ȚARA FĂGĂRAȘULUI PARTICIPANȚI LA PRIMUL RĂZBOI MONDIAL” [”ROMANIANS FROM FĂGĂRAȘ COUNTRY PARTICIPATING IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR”] BY VASILE TABĂRĂ AND RADU TABĂRĂ

Author(s): Nicoleta Annemarie Munteanu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The monograph ”Romanians from Făgăraș Land Participating in the First World War” published in 2024 by the Andreiana Publishing House and Astra Association Publishing HOUSE represents a relevant assessment dedicated to remembering events, facts and certain events regarding the Făgăraș town inhabitants. It includes data about each village related to the consequences of the First World War. The main aim of this book is to present accurately a possible answer to how today and future generations can know the special deeds of their forebears, accurately, so that their sacrifices may receive their reward of eternal appreciation and gratitude.