Diskrete Barbarei. Budapest tauscht seine Helden und Straßennamen
Author´s view of the Hungarian culture and its people.
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Author´s view of the Hungarian culture and its people.
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The social world, created by culture, norm, knowledge, ideology and ideas, affects the identity of states and the latter forms interests of states and ultimately their actions. The social norms that form the Iranian identity dominate the actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this sense, Mahdism, one of the most important corner stones of Iranian identity,plays an important role in the construction of this identity. The Islamic Republic of Iran securitizes countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan by using the Mahdi discourse and tries to justify taking urgent measures in these countries. That the most of Zaydis in Yemen follow the Husi family and adopted some Iranian customs and rituals, and thus diverged from the Arab identity, are the subjects of agent-structure debate of the constructivism.
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The article presents an analysis of one of Zygmunt Haupt’s text – unpublished during the author’s lifetime – which grapples with the issue of identity of a Polish writer who settled in the United States. The artist’s exile self-awareness is determined by the spatiotemporal conceptual oppositions typical for the émigré condition: “here” and “there,” “now” and “then.” An additional, original element of Hauptian discourse is the metaphor of the “praił” [primordial clay] that he uses to describe the foundation of the long-established self-awareness that is confronted with the ubiquitous otherness. The analysis also encompasses the writer’s literary output and unpublished archival materials.
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Human beings make a world for themselves by making sense of their environment. In order for this transfer to be continuous, it must be permanent in human memory. Turning the memory into a place in a cultural sense, human codes should be kept alive in all areas of life and transferred to new generations. There are various transitional periods in human life such as birth, marriage and death. They are essential transitions in human life. Beliefs and rituals formed around the transition periods have an essential place in keeping the cultural memory alive. It is understood that various cultural activities have emerged around death. The beliefs and practices that emerged at various stages before, during and after death bear the traces of thousands of years of the collective subconscious. The lament burned after the deceased is the outward reflection of the pain of a relative lost by humanity with death. The laments are a kind of farewell to the deceased, expressing a short life story of that person pathetically. It is also possible to see the traces of culture in laments. In laments, traces of daily life, tradition and custom, social life, geographical elements, etc. There are many factors. Laments also have the feature of being the bearer of national identity. The laments that result from pathetic events contain codes that will help the individual find his national identity. It is possible to determine the main elements of national identity such as tradition and custom, homeland and language in laments. In this context, there are codes in Pinarbasi laments that will help individuals reach their cultural identity. It is seen that the elements of culture and national identity are intensely included in Pinarbasi laments. In our study, the function of laments in creating a cultural memory and national identity will be emphasised, and Pinarbasi laments will be examined in this context.
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revolution studies. This paper explores the core narratives underlying post-Rose Revolution and post-Velvet Revolution identity construction in Georgian and Armenian political discourses. More specifically, it examines the core narratives employed by the Georgian and Armenian revolution leaders Mikheil Saakashvili and Nikol Pashinyan in constructing the political identities of “New Georgia” and “New Armenia.” The findings suggest that the core narratives dominating Saakashvili’s discourse on post-revolution Georgia are as follows: “democratic Georgia” and “laboratory of democratic reforms,” “stereotype breaker,” “European Georgia,” “peaceful Georgia,” “powerful Georgia” and “security contributor,” determined to homecoming to Europe. Pashinyan’s discourse has revolved around the notion of “proud Armenians,” who established “people’s government” capable of carrying out an “economic revolution.” In contrast to Saakashvili’s emphasis on escaping post-Soviet geopolitical space and gaining centrality in the EU-driven socio-political order, Pashinyan’s discourse does not suggest foreign policy U-turns. It concludes that while the 2003 “Rose Revolution” marked fundamental shifts in self-other conceptions within the Georgian political discourse, the post-revolution Armenian discourse has not experienced dramatic identity-driven transformations.
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This article presents a discursive image of the refugee which emerges from comments of Polish Facebook users. The author applies a detailed case study method to analyse several comments on an electoral campaign spot published by one of the candidates for the Mayor of Warsaw, Patryk Jaki. Specialised institutions and organisations considered it a case of xenophobic hate speech. Using analytical tools of Critical Discourse Analysis, the article deconstructs two positions emerging in the discussion: pro- and anti-refugee. A close examination of these two standpoints reveals not only differences but also similarities between them. It seems that one feature they share is the perception of refugees’ (lack of) agency.
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Following the Revolution of Dignity, Ukrainian identity found itself in a crisis – between the abandoned Sovietness and the new Ukrainianess. This paper looks at the worldview apparent in the mass media and the attendant solutions to overcome the identity crisis as presented to Ukrainians today. On the example of the TV series entitled The Last Muscovite (Ostatniĭ Moskal′), the study seeks to explain how the ideological discourse defines individuals representing particular identities (conservative: characteristic of Western and increasingly also Central Ukraine, modernist: typical of Eastern Ukraine, and liberal: most often represented by the central part of the country) and what strategies it offers in terms of mutual perception and relations between these identities.
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This paper aims to examine the principle of nationalities as a main concept in the Transylvanian Romanians political thought from the end of the nineteenth century until the Great Union of 1918. The assumption of this approach is that the radicalism of the policy towards the nationalities in Transleithania involved (1) the specificity of instituting the principle of nationalities as doctrinal basis of the militant demarche, petitioner-memorandist and political, in combating the Hungarian policy towards nationalities and in imposing the recognition of nationalities as political nations in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and (2) a specific incorporation of the principle of nationalities within federalist conceptions. As such the second part of this paper contains a configuration of the “nationality principle” in Aurel C. Popoviciʼs works.
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In the spring of 2017, the play entitled The Curse, directed by Oliver Frljić premiered at one of Warsaw theatres. It was not the first attempt to perform in Poland on the part of the Croatian director, well known as a controversial artist whose plays discuss social and political issues. His previous appearances on Polish stages usually evoked an air of scandal. The content of The Curse, too, had its producers investigated by the state prosecutors soon after its premiere; and blasphemy and incitement to crime in the theatre were discussed in the public sphere. The Curse is a loose adaptation of Stanisław Wyspiański’s drama, originally written in 1899. It deals provocatively with questions about modern religiousness and non-religiousness, touching upon relations between the Polish Catholic Church and the state, and upon national identity in contemporary Poland. This paper is focused on reactions to Frljić’s play, especially on different ways of expressing public anger as the most frequent reaction; it shows how politicians, members of religious and nationalist groups and other protesters became part of the performance. It aims to explain the success of one of the most scandalous theatrical ventures in Poland, describes the peculiarity of the Polish context, the dynamics of reaction of opponents and students of Frljić’s activities, and shows the lasting consequences as well as the performative potential of the Croatian director’s presence in the Polish public sphere. A very important circumstance in researching The Curse is that – as emphasized both in the performance itself and in the public debate – Polish national values were criticized by an outsider, in other words, by the Other.
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The article examines Israeli cinema as a critical participant in the local drama of national ideology and national identity. Israeli filmmakers have engaged in enunciating the national culture, in the context of the medium’s history, political ideologies, and the tension between high art and popular culture. The historical review of Israeli films shows dramatic changes over the years from nationalistic propaganda to radical critique and post-Zionism. Israeli cinema appears now to seek a constructive and fruitful dialogue with the viewers. In the recent wave of popular films, the national ideology is more conscious of its past mistakes and inherent deficiencies; its presentation of national identity is less narrow and more open to alternative types, thereby suggesting new vistas of national culture.
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The aim of the paper is to analyse the relation of the cantonal and local authorities,bodies and institutions in the Zenica-Doboj Canton to the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its protection and promotion through the analysis of treating the medieval heritage with special emphasis on the Charter of Kulin Ban and the ruler himself. The paper presents a case study analysis that we believe can show in a plastic way the attitude of the authorities towards their own heritage. The Zenica-Doboj Canton is located in the centre of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it is also the central area of the medieval Bosnian state and Kulin’s Bosnia. Namely, the Charter of Ban Kulin, followed by the Abjuration on Bilino polje, as well as a whole spectrum of other material remains from the time of Kulin’s reign are related to the area of Zenica-Doboj Canton (Plaque from Muhašinović, Plaque of Grand Judge Gradješa). It would be logical for this canton to lead the way in protecting and promoting cultural heritage, especially the medieval ones, but the situation on the ground proves otherwise. We analysed the representation of Kulin’s name in the names of streets,public institutions and organizations in the entire Zenica-Doboj Canton and show edits (in) representation in the establishment of the collective memory of society. We also analysed the role of the non-governmental sector in the promotion and protection of cultural heritage, with particular emphasis on the relationship of the city of Zenica to Kulin Ban, both in the past and in the present age.
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This interview with David McDowall records his intellectual quest on the Kurds for over thirty years and his book A Modern History of the Kurds. Initially trained as a historian of modern Syria, his interest started when he was asked to write a report on the Kurds as a minority group. He later expanded his research on the Kurds, which culminated in one of the most comprehensive books on the modern history of the Kurds. In this interview he talks about the process of research for his book, the Kurdish national movement, intra-Kurdish relations, the Kurdish diaspora, and the transformation of the Kurdish Question in the last three decades.
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The literature on contentious politics often explains the dynamics of collective action as a product of sequential events in national and international politics. This time-centred perspective disregards the spatial dynamics of contention. Similarly, analysis on the relation between the Turkish state and Kurdish national movement tends to focus on dynamics and actors in macro politics. However, in the case of urban warfare, macro-level explanations cannot by themselves illustrate why certain localities experienced urban warfare while other districts in the same city or region continued their everyday life. Therefore, this article shifts the focus from macro-political dynamics to micro politics to examine the emergence of urban warfare in Suriçi, Diyarbakır, in 2015. It argues that socio-spatial dynamics comprised significant mechanisms that facilitated the conflict. Overall, it claims that the urban warfare in Suriçi demonstrates that dynamics of mobilization can be captured through a dialectical approach to macro and micro-level politics.
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The analysis presented here offers a possible framework for understanding when sub-state actors behave prudently and more strategically in their foreign relations, and when other priorities might instead heighten the chances of seemingly irrational, erratic, or dangerous, foreign policies. Using a case study of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq to illustrate the argument, the author attempts to show how “regime consolidation” plays a key role in allowing such actors to prioritise policies aimed at grappling with external challenges, threats and opportunities. Internally legitimate, consolidated regimes can better present “one face” to the outside world and behave more strategically in the international arena. Political systems lacking consolidation or internal legitimacy, in contrast, turn to the external environment in search of resources to help them with domestic threats and challenges. This may lead to seemingly erratic, unpredictable and risky foreign policies on their part.
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The present article aims to present a study of several, crucial themes in the writings by Albert Cohen, in the light of Jacques Derrida’s concept of the archive. The presence of the experience of the Jewish nation is fixedly important in Cohen’s work. In this article, my objective is to prove that Cohen’s writing process significantly exceeds the common patterns of thinking about the past or even about the Jewish identity, of which an important component is the continuity of the relationship with the ancestors. Owing to the Derridean concept of the archive, it becomes possible to observe the significance of the past activity and its consequences for the subject’s identity.
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In this work I analyze and interpret Polish political field as a field of memory. I make three claims. First, I claim that programmatic identities of Polish political parties are weak. Despite this weakness political competition remains fierce, because parties fashion enduring political identities. I identify three mainstream political identities of political actors in Poland, given by their temporal orientation and their judgment of communism. Second, I claim that the field of the political competition predicated on the turn to the past and on moral opprobrium is the particular achievement of the party that captured political power in Poland in 2015. Similarly to its 2005 electoral success, the party narrated the country’s main problem as communist state-capture. It claimed that (former-) communists and their post-dissident allies captured political, material, and symbolic levers of power. This way of presenting the problem polarized the field, casting political opponents as essential enemies, and casting the narrators as country’s saviors. Third, this achievement was possible because the party narrated communism as essentially and existentially anti-Polish: it presented it as equal to Nazism, it made it foreign, and it made it coincidental with Jewishness. It then launched such discursive “weapon” against its present-day opponents.
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This article examines under what conditions descriptive representatives of national minorities can also act as substantive representatives. It provides an empirical analysis of the behaviour of the representatives with ethnic minority backgrounds in the eighth National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. Specifically, the article builds upon a content analysis of all interventions in the plenary parliamentary debates of the thirtyone minority MPs in the period between June 2008 and March 2012. The analysis suggests that having a minority ethnic background or political party registered as a political party of national minority are not sufficient conditions for substantive minority representation. The findings show that minority representatives elected on minority electoral lists engage more in substantive representation of minorities than descriptive representatives elected to parliament either as members of mainstream parties or through pre-electoral arrangements of minority parties with mainstream political parties.
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Poslije dužeg pripremnog perioda sistematskog izbjegavanja upotrebe nacionalnog imena “Bošnjaci“ (da se narod odvikne!), institucije i pojedinci koji stoje iza ove opake ujdurme, konačno su otvorili karte i javno predložili odbacivanje imena “Bošnjaci“ i uvođenjem nakaradne fantazmagorije “bosanstva“, najavili brisanje njihove duhovnosti i etničkog identiteta!
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On 10 April 2010, the plane carrying the Polish president to the commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of the Katyń massacre crashed near the Smolensk airport in Russia. The following article will not analyze the reasons for the catastrophe or its sequels. It will focus on the way in which the tragic death of Lech Kaczyński (along with ninety-five other people on board) and the subsequent national mourning were depicted in public discourse, bringing into focus key political concepts, such as community, national identity, and, above all, patriotism. It will focus on a number of questions: Did the perception and expression of patriotism change in this time of mourning? What was commonly perceived as patriotism during a national trauma? Was the national mourning symbolic? If yes, in what way? The current analysis presents the dynamics of public debate in the aftermath of the catastrophe and the major shifts the debate went through. First, it deals with the question of national mourning and the controversial decision to bury the presidential couple in the crypt of the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków. Subsequently, the analysis focuses on references to Romanticism, religion, and the (de- and re-)construction of the concept of patriotism, drawing on insights concerning community and its alleged unity. While patriotism has been broadly discussed throughout the democratic transition, and new civic approaches have been offered, during the period of national mourning it was possible to detect a strong resurgence of Romantic language with its melodramatic and martyrological features.
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