Suchergebnisse

Costas Gaganakis, The construction of memory in Protestant propagandaduring the French Religious WarsSubject of this article is the construction of collective, group memory,by French Protestant propagandists, such as Jean Crespin, during the troubled years of the French religious wars. The invention of a heroicpast, as constitutive element of Huguenot identity, not only served thepurposes of an imagined community, but equally sought to come toterms with the pressing political situation of the day. Huguenot polemicists,like François Hotman, also attempted to reconstruct Frenchnanional memory (and identity), by referring to an invented nationalpast, in order to justify their open rebellion against the French monarchy,especially following the events of August 1572.The insistence on the history of the martyrs, on the biblical identityof the Huguenots, served to consolidate inner bonds and to cultivatea sense of heroic perseverance for the persecuted minority. Huguenotcollective memory not only served to mould collective religious identity,but it also helped to promote a distinct political identity, that of afully loyal and wrongly persecuted, patriotic minority. ; Costas Gaganakis, The construction of memory in Protestant propagandaduring the French Religious WarsSubject of this article is the construction of collective, group memory,by French Protestant propagandists, such as Jean Crespin, during the troubled years of the French religious wars. The invention of a heroicpast, as constitutive element of Huguenot identity, not only served thepurposes of an imagined community, but equally sought to come toterms with the pressing political situation of the day. Huguenot polemicists,like François Hotman, also attempted to reconstruct Frenchnanional memory (and identity), by referring to an invented nationalpast, in order to justify their open rebellion against the French monarchy,especially following the events of August 1572.The insistence on the history of the martyrs, on the biblical identityof the Huguenots, served to consolidate inner bonds and to cultivatea sense of heroic perseverance for the persecuted minority. Huguenotcollective memory not only served to mould collective religious identity,but it also helped to promote a distinct political identity, that of afully loyal and wrongly persecuted, patriotic minority.

Examining identity in relation to globalization and migration, this book uses narratives and memoirs from contemporary authors who have lived 'in-between' two or more languages. It explores the human desire to find one's 'own place' in new cultural contexts, and looks at the role of language in shaping a sense of belonging in society.

Δεν παρατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικά. ; Photini Danou, The words of the voiceless Did ordinary men and women in pre-modern England have an opinion about politics? What was "politics" for the common people at a time when they had not any say in choosing who would rule them? Was popular engagement in state politics only to secure subsistence? Were "knife and fork" politics of the masses so separate from issues of "high politics" of the State? Was pre-modern commoners' mentality, "pre-political" as well? This paper discusses early modern popular political awareness. I argue that commoners in Tudor England pursued their own political agenda, by exploiting the sovereign's self-image as the "protector of the poor". However, as I set out to show, in pursuing their political agenda commoners also raised issues on the content of Englishness, common good, patriotism, legitimate governance and the right of resistance. The political identity of the lower strata was not an entity fixed in its essence. On the contrary, plebeian political identity was rather shifting, changeable, and always constituting its content in particular historical contexts. The commoners' commitment to the ideal of the"nation", their loyalty to the government, their allegiance to their Queen, their obedience to her laws, or their active participation in the enforcement of state policies were not unconditional. The ways they practiced their political identity was interrelated to their superiors' behavior and draw its legitimacy from the public transcript of the English Common wealth. Common prosperity, reciprocity, solidarity and, in general, protection of the poorer and weaker members of English society were ideals that constituted the meaning of "common wealth" in the plebeian mind. Those ideals were prerequisites for their giving of devotion and loyalty to the state. Thus, the commoners' political mentality and behavior ranged from national loyalty to indifference or even animosity to state officials; from cooperation and acquiescence to covered or overt forms of opposition and active resistance.

Δεν παρατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικά. ; Maria Damilakou, The image of the gaucho in the argentine society (1830- 1940): ideological uses and historiographie approaches This article attempts to show the different images of the gaucho, symbol of the argentine pampa, that predominated the local society as long as to associate them to the different interpretations of the historical past and the process of construction of the argentine national identity. This process required contacts, confrontations and interchanges among different social groups and sectors, such as the lower classes, the intellectual and political elites, the marginal rural element and the new coming immigrants. The construction of the gaucho's image was a long process, extended from the first half of the 19th century until the peronist years. From the «heroic son of the earth» who stood up the Spanish conquerors during the Revolution of 1810, he became the «barbarian of the desert» through the discourse of the illuminated elite that, during the second half of the 19th century, undertook the national organization of the country, its fast modernization and the creation of «obedient citizens». During the same period, the popular culture provided a different aspect of the gaucho, especially through the figures of Martin Fierro and Juan Moreira: the gaucho now became the center of a large cultural phenomenon that was picturing the rural way of life, codified common experience and expectations and became a form of resistance to the process of modernization. Later, in the 1910s, the image of the «obedient» Martin Fierro was adopted by the cultural nationalism of the period and used as the symbol of the argentine national identity and as the incarnation of the argentine essence and soul. At last, the leftwing forces adopted the gaucho as the symbol of the oppressed social groups, whereas the nationalist movements of the 1930s used his image in order to support their revisioned interpretations about the national historical past.

Δεν παρατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικά. ; Powerful revisionist currents are now flowing through the social sciences against what have been termed «society-centred» modes of explanation. The swift away from social determination has centred on the problem of the material referent of political motivation. This essay, talking about the language, wants to discuss some of the most problematic legacies of the social historical methodology. Linguistic turn in history focuses on the ways meaning is constituted in and through language in order to explain the world. Discourse is the organising concept term for conceptualising and practising the history of meaning. Discourse operates so as to structure thought and speech in certain ways and to preclude being structured in others. The problem of organising a social identity becomes one of representation: ideas certainly do matter, but the ways in which they matter, indeed their very existence as identifiable ideas, depend on processes of institutional and cultural mediation. That's why there is always an element of discordance between «social being» and its interpretation in «social consciousness». The disequilibrium results from the fact that their linkage is a product of human convention. People's responses to their experiences help shaped social change.

Δεν παρατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικά. ; Kostas E. Lambrinos, Nobles and Cittadini in the Community of Venetian Sitia. Social Fermentations and Rearrangements (late sixteenth-seventeenth century) This study highlights the community of upper social class in Sitia, a small town in eastern Crete, in the late period of the Venetian dominion. Using new evidence from the State Archives of Venice, the article examines unknown aspects of the topic, such as the social identity of the community council (the so-called consiglio della comunità), the political functions and the evolution of this body, its internal social rearrangements and its particularities by comparison with the community dynamics in the other Cretan towns. The archival data indicate that this socio-political organ played a central role in local public life, but had a secondary position within the Venetian political system. Regarding its social composition, the community originally consisted of nobles-feudatories, according to the model of strict social organization in the island under Venetian rule. However, multiple factors of crucial importance, such as the small number of nobles in Sitia, the inadequate fortification of the town and the increasing financial needs of this region, had a catalytic effect on the local social fabric and, consequently, on the structure of the community: in the early seventeenth century it lost its aristocratic profile and acquired characteristics, which differentiate it from the other community entities of Crete. This decisive evolution occurred with the social advancement of the cittadini. Τhis intermediate social group acquired, with the consent of the Venetian authorities, the right to participate in the community in order to meet government targets in this politically sensitive area of the island. Hereinafter the cittadini had an increasingly strong presence in the community processes, gained more social power and enjoyed privileges previously monopolized by the aristocracy.

Δεν παρατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικά. ; The declaration of the establishment of the «Kingdom of Serbs, Groats and Slovenes» on the 1st of December, 1918 —which in 1929 was renamed to Yugoslavia— fulfilled the long standing desire for the political unification of all South-Slavs. However, the new State which apart from the three old kingdoms of Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia included the entities of the former Hungarian Vojvodina, the former Austrian Slovenia and Dalmatia and the Serbian Macedonia had to tackle certain problems. Its subjects were divided into several ethnic groups: Serbs, Croats and Slovenes —who constituted three quarters of its entire population— and Germans, Hungarians and Albanians as well as other ethnic minorities. The population of the new state was also divided into three religious categories: 47% were Orthodox Christians, 39% Catholics, and 11% Muslims. This paper attempts to analyze five constructive crises which came about in interwar Yugoslavia, and are characteristic of any modern state: 1) The crisis of identity of the state itself and of the various ethnic groups. The ideology of Yugoslavian unification failed to bridge the differences between the ethnic and religious groups; 2) The crisis of legitimacy. This is related with the nature of the regime. From 1918 until the dictatorship of 1929 twenty three governmental crises occured; 3) The crisis of integration, as reflected in the policies and the electoral results of the various political parties which had clear ethnic and geographical limits. During the interwar period none of the existing political parties attained to play this integrating role by securing mass support throughout the country; 4) The crisis of participation of individuals and social groups in controlling the public affairs and manning the state apparatus; 5) The crisis of distribution of goods and services. The ethnic and political contradictions between the Slovenes and Croats in the North and Serbs in the South resulted in the uneven development between these two geographical districts of the state.