Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Politics and culture – Italy – 20th century'

This thesis will examine the political and social significance of the new artistic language that emerged in Poland in the 1980s. The new artistic language pertains to symbols, imagery and themes that originated in the discourse of the opposition and can be defined as the amalgam of the traditional religious vocabulary and time-specific symbols of oppression under Communism. The most prominent in this category are the symbols of the cross, the flowers, the national red and white flag, exclusively contemporary symbols such as the "television-people" as well as an array of traditional religious vocabulary. This unusual relationship between symbolic language of art and the symbols of the Church and the Solidarity accounted for the inherently political nature of dissident art. This thesis will discuss dissident art in context of the contemporary discourses: the discourse of the Communist Party, the Church, John Paul II and Solidarity.

The purpose of this study is to arrive at a critical overview of politics and literature in the Chinese context. The relationship has increasingly become a "field" of studies and theoretical inquiry that most scholars in either disciplines are wary to tread. This thesis tries to venture into this problematic field by a theoretical examination as well as an empirical critique of Chinese literature and politics, where the relationship seems even more paradoxical, but adds more insight into the argument. The Introduction and Chapter One set up a framework by asking some general but fundamental questions: what literature is, and how it is to be related to politics. Chapter Two examines the historical function of literature and Chinese writers in society to establish the basis of argument in the Chinese context. Chapter Three focuses the discussion on the relationship between politics and literature during the Mao era and after. Chapters Four analyses the literary works published during the post-Mao period to establish the argument that literature, as part of our perception of the world, is most concerned with human society and social amelioration and participates in the socio-political development by contributing to it through a discourse that is otherwise inaccessible. Chapter Five explores the argument further by extending it into the field of cinema, which basically comes from the same narrative tradition of prose literature, but offers a wider and different dimension to the argument pursued. Chapter Six and the Conclusion try to draw together the argument by examining literature as both form and content to argue how and why literature is related to politics and how it has functioned in a political manner in Chinese society. To summarise, Chinese literature in this period will b& shown to be involved In a process of political reform and development by way of bringing the reader to participate in a critical and philosophical dialogue with power, history and future. In the long run, it offers emancipating visions and possibilities revealed to the reader in ways that are historical, developmental, philosophical and comparative. This study focuses on the prose fiction published in this period, for it is the leading force in China's cultural development and constitutes the major trunk of the modern Chinese canon. In addition, the research also extends to drama and films, and the way they, together with prose fiction, make up the most popular perception and intellectual discovery of contemporary Chinese society and politics and best inform the argument of the study of politics and literature.

The dissertation examines the field of popular magazines in 1930s Italy, by first examining the broad field of magazine production under Fascism and then undertaking three case studies of individual magazines - L'Avventuroso (1934 - 1943), Omnibus (1937 - 1939), and Grazia (1938 -) - in order to build an in-depth analysis of the production, format and reception of the popular press in this period. In the interwar years, and in particular from 1934 onwards, innovative printing techniques and production methods transformed the periodical press worldwide. The emergence of new forms of illustrated magazines expanded the readership and started a process of standardisation and mass production of periodicals. The dissemination in Italy of the rotocalco, a new product aimed at the masses that was developed in the 1930s, offers a particularly interesting starting point for analysing the development of a modern Italian mass press and culture within the peculiar dynamics of a controlling Fascist regime and the mixed national and international forces that shaped it. Modern Italian magazines developed in dialogue with foreign industries, imitating models from abroad and adapting them to the Italian culture. The development of popular press in the 1930s represented a challenge for the Fascist regime, which approached it both as a threat and an opportunity to shape Italian popular culture. Through the analysis of three case studies, each from a key sector of popular press - comics, general cultural magazines, and women's magazines - and each produced by one of the three main publishing companies in the field - Nerbini, Rizzoli, and Mondadori - the dissertation aims to provide a detailed picture of the development of mass print culture in Italy during Fascism. The analysis provides examples of the impact of and cracks in Fascist censorship and cultural autarchy on the periodical press and argues that the Italian popular press developed in dialogue with European and American culture, which influenced both the form and content of rotocalchi, reinterpreting and adapting these models to Italian standards and to the constrictions of Fascist control.

This thesis explores the shifting political culture of inter-war Scotland and Britain via an examination of political identities and practice in Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh. Drawing on the local and national archives of the Labour movement and the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) alongside government records, newspapers, personal testimony and visual sources, relations on the political Left are used as a means to evaluate this change. It is contended that, as a result of the extension of the franchise and post-war fears of a rise in political extremism, national party loyalties came to replace those local political identities, embedded in a sense of class, trade and place, which had previously sustained popular radicalism. This had crucial implications for the conduct of politics, as local customs of popular political participation declined, and British politics came to be defined by national elections. The thesis is structured in two parts. The first section considers the extent to which local identities of class and established provincial understandings of popular democracy came to be identified with an appeal to class sentiment excluded from national political debate. The second section delineates the repercussions this shift had for how and where politics was conducted, as the mass franchise discredited popular traditions of protest, removing politics from public view, and privileging the individual elector. In consequence, the confrontational traditions of popular politics came to be the preserve of those operating on the fringes of politics, especially the CPGB, and, as such, largely disappeared from British political culture. This thesis thus offers an important reassessment of the relationship between the public and politics in modern Britain, of the tensions between local and national loyalties, and of the role of place in the construction of political identities.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is a socio-cultural history of the sport of surfing from 1959 to the 2000s in South Africa. It critically engages with the “South African Surfing History Archive”, collected in the course of research, by focusing on two inter-related themes in contributing to a critical sports historiography in southern Africa. The first is how surfing in South Africa has come to be considered a white, male sport. The second is whether surfing is political. In addressing these topics the study considers the double whiteness of the Californian influences that shaped local surfing culture at “whites only” beaches during apartheid. The racialised nature of the sport can be found in the emergence of an amateur national surfing association in the mid-1960s and consolidated during the professionalisation of the sport in the mid-1970s. Within these trends, the making and maintenance of an exemplar white surfing masculinity within competitive surfing was linked to national identity. There are three counter narratives to this white, male surfing history that have been hidden by that same past. Firstly, the history women’s surfing in South Africa provides examples of girl localisms evident within the masculine domination of the surf. Herein submerged women surfer voices can be heard in the cultural texts and the construction of surfing femininities can be seen within competitive surfing. Secondly, surfing’s whiteness was not outside of the political. The effects of the international sports boycott against apartheid for South African surfing were two-fold: international pressure on surfing as a racialised sport led to sanctions in the late 1970s against the amateur national surfing teams competing internationally or maintaining international sporting contacts; and, as of 1985, the boycott by professional surfers of events on the South African leg of the world surfing tour further deepened South African surfing’s sports isolation. By the end of the 1980s, white organised surfing was in crisis and the status of South African as a surfing nation in question. Lastly, the third counter-narrative is the silenced histories of black surfing under apartheid. Alongside individual black surfer histories, the non-racial surfing movement in the mid-to-late 1980s is considered as a political and cultural protest against white organised surfing. The rationale for non-racial sport was challenged in 1990 as South Africa began its political transition to democracy. Nevertheless, the South African Surfing Union, the national non-racial surfing body, played a pivotal role in surfing’s unification in 1991 which led to South African amateur surfing’s return to international competition in 1992. However, it was an uneasy unity within organised surfing that set the scene for surfing development as a strategy for sports transformation in the post-apartheid years. The emergence of black surfing localisms after 1994 is located within that history, with attention given to the promotion of young, male Zulu surfers within competitive surfing, which point to emergent trends in the Africanisation of surfing in the 2000s. It is concluded is that while cultural change in South African surfing is evident in the post-apartheid present, that change is complicated by surfing’s gendered and apartheid sporting pasts.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie is ‘n sosio-kulturele studie oor die geskiedenis van die sport van branderplankry in Suid-Afrika vanaf omstreeks 1959 tot 2000. Dit behels onder meer ‘n kritiese bespreking van die “Suid-Afrikaanse Branderplank Argief” wat in die loop van navorsing opgebou is. Daar word veral op twee temas in kritiese sport historiografie in suidelike Afrika gefokus. Die eerste is die wyse hoe branderplankry in Suid-Afrika as ‘n wit manlike sport ontwikkel het. Die tweede is of branderplankry as polities beskou kan word. Hierdie onderwerpe word onder die loep geneem deur te let op die dubbele witheid van Kaliforniese invloede wat die plaaslike kultuur op “slegs blanke” strande onder apartheid help vorm het. Die rasgebonde aard van die sport kan gevind word in die totstandkoming van die amateur nasionale branderplank vereniging in in die middel 1960s en is gekonsolideer met die professionalisering van die sport in die middel 1970s. Vervat in hierdie verwikkelinge is die vorming en instandhouding van ‘n besondere tipe manlikheid wat as ‘n ideaal tipe voorgehou is en deurmiddel van mededingende branderplank kompetisies aan ‘n nasionale identitieit gekoppel is. Daar is drie kontra narratiewe tot hierdie wit manlike geskiedenis wat deur dieselfde verlede verberg is. Eerstens is daar die geskiedenis van vroue branderplankry wat blyke gee van plaaslike vroue se betrokkenheid in dié oorheersende manlike domein. Gedempte vrouestemme klink op in kulturele tekste en die konstruksie van vroulike identiteite binne mededingende kompetisies.Tweedens was branderplankry se witheid nie onverwant aan die politieke dimensie nie. Die uitwerking van die internasionale sportsboikot teen apartheid was tweeledig: internasionale druk op branderplankry as ‘n rasgebonde sport het in die laat 1970s tot sanksies teen amateur spanne gelei wat oorsee meegeding het of internasionale kontakte gehad het, en sedert 1985 het die boikot van professionele branderplankryers van kompetisies in Suid-Afrika die land se isolasie verdiep. Teen die einde van die 1980s was wit georganiseerd branderplankry in ‘n krisis en die status van van Suid-Afrika as ‘n branderplankry nasie in die gedrang. Laastens is die derde kontra narratief die vergete geskiedenisse van swart branderplankryers onder apartheid. Samehangend met swart geskiedenisse word die nie-rassige branderplankry beweging in die middel 1980s as ‘n kulturele en politieke protes beskou. Die rasionaal vir nie-rassige sport is in 1990 uitgedaag tydens die oorgang na volledige demokrasie in Suid-Afrika. Desnieteenstaande het die Suid-Afrikaans Branderplankry Vereniging ‘n bepalende rol gespeel in organisatoriese eenwording in die sport en die hertoelating tot internasionale kompetisies in 1992. Dit was egter ‘n ongemaklike eenheid waarop transformasie gedurende die postapartheid fase gebou moes word. Die groter teenwoordigheid van plaaslike swart branderplankryers moet in dié konteks gesien word, veral ten opsigte van jong Zoeloe ryers wat alhoemee navore tree en op die Afrikanisering van die sport sedert ongeveer 2000 dui. Daar word ten slotte op gewys dat hoewel kulturele verandering in die huidige bedeling merkbaar is, die sport se geslagtelike en rasgebonde verlede nog steeds sake kompliseer.

Dante Alighieri is, undoubtedly, an enduring feature of the cultural memory of generations of Italians. His influence is such that the mere mention of a ‘dark wood’ or ‘life’s journey’ recalls the poet and his most celebrated work, the Divina Commedia. This study, however, seeks to examine the construction of the medieval Florentine poet, exemplified by the above assertion, as a potent symbol of the Italian nation. From the creation of the idea of the Italian nation during the Risorgimento, to the Liberal ruling elite’s efforts after 1861 to legitimise the new Italian nation state, and more importantly to ‘make Italians’, to the rise of a more imperialist conception of nationalism in the early twentieth century and its most extreme expression under the Fascist regime, Dante was made to play a significant role in defining, justifying and glorifying the Italian nation. Such an exploration of the utilisation of Dante in the construction of Italian national identity during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries aids considerably in an understanding of the conceptualisation of the Italian nation, of the issues engendered by the establishment of the Italian nation state, and the evolution of these processes throughout the period in question. The various images of Dante revealed by this investigation of his instrumentalisation in the Italian process of nation-building bear only a fleeting resemblance to what is known of the poet in his medieval reality. Dante was born in 1265 to a family of modest means and standing in Florence, at that time the economic centre of Europe, and one of the most important cities of the Italian peninsula. His writings disclosed, however, that he was little impressed by his city’s prestige and wealth, being instead greatly disturbed by its political discord and instability, of which he became an unfortunate victim. The violent partisan conflict in Florence and the turbulent political condition of the Italian peninsula in the late thirteenth century had a decisive influence on Dante’s life and literary endeavours.

This thesis seeks to investigate the possibility that the binary opposition between retributive and restorative forms of justice that structures the discourse on justice is unhelpful and unnecessary, particularly for societies seeking to extricate themselves from violent conflict and towards building peace and democracy. I shall argue for the importance of considering restorative justice as conceptually and historically prior to the possibility of retributive justice rather than the negation of one or the other, as well as advocate the potentially greater transformative power of the values of restorative justice which may provide a constructive alternative to retributive justice in the context of post-conflict peacebuilding.

This thesis deals with Girolamo Savonarola and with his place in the imagination and collective memory of Italians from the early nineteenth century to the present. It examines the works of a variety of Italian fictional authors who turned to Savonarola in the belief that he could help them pursue objectives which, in their opinion, Italy and Italians should strive to achieve. At first, he was called upon by nationalist writers of the Risorgimento to inspire a people and convince it of the need for a free, united Italy. Later, as the new nation began to consolidate and Italians came to realize that unification had not delivered all that it had promised, Savonarola was employed in a negative way to show that military action and force were necessary to ensure Italy's progress to the status of great power. As Italians became more aware of the grave social issues facing their nation, he was called upon, once again, to help change social policy and to remind the people of its civic responsibility to the less fortunate members of society. The extent of Savonarola's adaptability is also explored through the analysis of his manipulation by the writers of Fascist Italy. Remarkably, he was used to highlight to Italians their duty to stand by Mussolini and the Fascist Regime during their struggle with the Catholic Church and the Pope. At the same time, however, one writer daringly used Savonarola's apostolate to condemn the Regime and the people's blind adherence to its philosophies. As Fascism fell and Italy began to rebuild after the Second World War, there was no longer a need for Savonarola to be used for political or militaristic ends. In recent times, emphasis has been placed on the human side of the Friar and he has been employed solely to guide Italians in a civic, moral and spiritual sense. From the Risorgimento to the present, the various changes in Italian history have been foreshadowed in the treatment of Savonarola by Italian fictional authors who turned to him in difficult times to help define what it is to be Italian.

This study examines the political theory of modernity as it appears in the work of contemporary Latin American writers and thinkers (pensadores). It is designed to help bridge the gap that separates the North American and European dialogue on modernity from the parallel dialogue on modernity currently flourishing in Latin America. The dialogues are brought together in two ways. First, the theory of modernity, which is still often thought to apply only or primarily to the developed world, is subjected to the challenge of the Latin American political and cultural context. Many features of the theory are found to apply equally well to both cultures, and these features provide the basis for the second "bridging" of the two dialogues, in which some of the most interesting Latin American responses to the problems of modernity are brought to the attention of North American and European political scholars. After reviewing the problem of modernity in some depth, the work of Jose Ortega y Gasset is presented both as a link to German philosophical thought and as a pattern for subsequent discussion of modernity in the Spanish-speaking world. Ortega's uniquely Latin way of understanding modernity is then compared to other philosophical approaches, and placed within the context of political literature in Latin America. Literature is shown to be a uniquely suitable forum for conveying Ortega's approach to modernity because it expresses in itself the central role of arts and culture in his political thought. The balance of the study focuses on the works of three contemporary Latin American authors: Octavio Paz of Mexico, Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia, and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru. Each author's major works are placed within the context of the model Latin American response to modernity inspired by Ortega and analyzed for significant contributions to the discussion of modernity. Their most important insights center around the need to assimilate the value of tradition in a new approach to modernity by means of some form of democratic dialogue combined with critical appreciation for the cultural uniqueness of nations.

In 1936, André Jolivet (1905-1974), Yves Baudrier (1906-1988), Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (1908-2002), and Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) founded the group Jeune France. They initiated this group under the influence of politically nonconformist movements in France which had started in the 1920s. The ideology of Jeune France was to revive in music 'true human qualities', free from 'extreme political domination'. At a time when some composers, associated with a revolutionary Left wing, were exploring avant-garde ideas in music that included atonalism, serialism, and other advanced techniques out of the common practice, other composers fell into a nationalistic Right wing, recalling the French Catholic traditions, and promoting an exclusive and true 'French' music. In contrast to these polarizing trends, Jeune France tried to trace back its art to its origins, and the goal of Jeune France was to re-establish music composition as something less 'abstract' than the Left, and more 'human' than the Right. The most powerful sound that can reflect the tenets of humanism in music is probably the human voice, especially multiple voices in a choral setting. Thus unaccompanied choral works, in particular, came to be a hallmark of many major composers of the 20th Century. The prevailing social and political environment of the pre-World War Two era also played an important role in contributing to the revival of unaccompanied choral music as a major genre. To demonstrate how these general social and political forces operated in the particular in France at this time, I have used Daniel-Lesur's Le Cantique des Cantiques (1952) to show how these affected a composer at this time. The goal of this research has been to look in depth at both Daniel-Lesur and his most famous work, about which little has been written in English; and to add to a growing body of literature which explores the rise of unaccompanied choral compositions as an important genre in the early 20th Century, a shift that is tied to political, cultural, and social conditions as well as musical ones. Taking Le Cantique des Cantiques as a token of a type, I show how this work reflects these issues as well as the aesthetics behind Jeune France. Finally, I have tried to show just how the experience of Jeune France influenced Daniel-Lesur as a composer as it did his more famous contemporary, Messiaen.

In 1991, a diplomatic controversy arose between Greece and the newly independent Republic of Macedonia, regarding naming, minority rights and the use of historical symbols. The claims of the new state to the name Macedonia and the historical heritage associated with it were perceived as a threat against Greek national identity and history itself. Within months, the so-called Macedonian question came to dominate the Greek domestic and foreign policy agenda. In Greek public debate, the conflict blended with concerns about the nation’s past, present and future, which played into the challenges brought about by the end of the Cold War. The Macedonian conflict can thus be understood as symptomatic of a crisis in Greek historical culture, as well as a catalyst for broader concerns about the role of history in contemporary society. This study explores the contexts in which the conflict evolved and how history was perceived, narrated and used by institutions, communities and individuals who sought to influence public opinion and policy-makers. The theoretical point of departure is the concept of historical culture, defined as the totality of discourses through which a society makes sense of itself, the present and the future through the interpretation of the past. In the study of historical culture, the notions of narratives and uses of history have been employed, with the notion of boundary-work as a supplementing analytical tool. The material of the study is primarily drawn from mainstream press, but also includes historiography. The study shows how the Macedonian controversy was intertwined with the identity- and memory-political demands of substate actors. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of a narrative on genocide among Greeks of Pontian origins. This happened in an age when traditional notions of national pride were being challenged by transnational history-cultural concerns about human rights and the notion of national guilt. The study also sheds light on how academic historians dealt with issues brought about by demands for politically committed scholarship, objectivity, legitimacy and the need to adjust in a transnational setting.
Denna studie har sin utgångspunkt i de utmaningar som det grekiska samhället och nationalstaten stod inför vid kalla krigets slut. I fokus står den diplomatiska konflikten mellan Grekland och republiken Makedonien, gällande den senare partens namn och bruk av historiskt laddade symboler samt minoritetsrättigheter. Denna makedonska konflikt som seglade upp i samband med Jugoslaviens sammanbrott kom att dominera den in- och utrikespolitiska dagordningen i Grekland under det tidiga 1990-talet, och förde tidvis in landet på kollisionskurs med dess västeuropeiska och amerikanska partners. Avhandlingens syfte har bestått i att spåra de sammanhang som denna konflikt växte fram i. Jag hävdar att den makedonska konflikten inte endast skall förstås som en kris i grekisk inrikespolitik, eller i landets relationer med omvärlden, utan fastmer som en kris i den grekiska historiekulturen. I det offentliga samtalet i Grekland smälte konflikten samman med en oro gällande nationens förflutna, nutid och framtid. Den diplomatiska fejden med den nya grannstaten i norr uppmärksammades av en bred allmänhet och åtföljdes av en diskurs som utmålade den egna nationens historia och arv som hotade. Studiet av denna diskurs, eller rättare sagt diskurser, om historia är ett viktigt mål i denna avhandling, eftersom det belyser uppfattningar om det förflutna jämte farhågor rörande nuet och nationens framtid, uppfattningar och farhågor som ytterst präglade den politiska krisen. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för studien återfinns i begreppet historiekultur. Med detta avses de samtliga diskurser genom vilka ett samhälle begripliggör sig självt, nuet och framtiden genom att tolka det förflutna. Sålunda definierad skall historiekultur förstås som både struktur och process. Det innebär att historiekulturen är både ramverket av kunskap, attityder och värderingar som ger den enskilde mening och sammanhang, och samhällen deras sammanhållning, och själva handlingen genom vilka ovansagda skapas och förmedlas. Som redskap för att studera historiekultur har begreppen berättelser och historiebruk använts. Eftersom studien särskilt uppmärksammar fackhistorikers roll i konflikten – viktiga i egenskap av aktörer som skapar och sprider den kunskap och de värderingar som utgör historiekultur – har även ett vetenskapssociologiskt perspektiv infogats. Offentliga kontroverser rörande det förflutna inbegriper kamp om trovärdigheten i vissa tolkningar liksom hos dem som framför dem. Som kompletterande analysredskap brukas begreppet gränsdragning (boundary-work), utifrån uppfattningen att vetenskapen bör studeras i det sociala sammanhang i vilket den bibringas mening och auktoritet. Historiekultur studeras genom dess lämningar. I föreliggande avhandling utgörs källmaterialet främst av artiklar i grekisk dagspress, men även historieskrivning (akademisk såväl som icke-akademisk) i bokform, vetenskapliga tidskrifter och andra relevanta trycksaker där historia debatteras, berättas, sätts in i sammanhang och brukas, har studerats. Materialet täcker ingalunda grekisk historiekultur i hela dess vidd men utgör likväl ett representativt urval av de arenor där såväl allmänhet som specialister mötte diskurser och debatter om det förflutna. 324 Studien har kartlagt de sätt på vilka historia brukades med särskilt avseende på de intressen som kan skönjas däri. Själva upplevelsen av kris tog sig uttryck i ett existentiellt historiebruk, kopplats till ett sökande efter rötter och kontinuitet som närdes av fruktan för krig, rotlöshet och kulturell minnesförlust. Det upplevda yttre hotet mot Grekland beskrevs ofta i termer av en hotande utmaning gentemot den nationella identiteten och nationens överlevnad, men också som en möjlighet att återupprätta en samlande nationell berättelse. Samtidigt brukades historia med både kommersiella och politiska mål i sikte, eftersom det nationella förflutna sågs som en moralisk, politisk och ekonomisk tillgång. Ett framträdande drag i debatten var ett politiskt historiebruk som syftade till att utmana en upplevd vänsterhegemoni som utmålades som ett hinder för nationell enighet och främjandet av Greklands utrikespolitiska målsättningar i utlandet. Men historia kunde även brukas politiskt för att visa på nationalismens avarter. Särskild uppmärksamhet har ägnats åt det moraliska historiebruket. Detta är ett bruk som utmanar vad som utpekas som förhärskande föreställningar och därför är ett medel för historiekulturens förändring. Historieproducenter längs med den politiska skalan tenderade att utforma sina berättelser i kritisk och moralistisk anda, även om syftet ofta var att bevara en traditionell förståelse av nationell historia och identitet. Emellertid är det berättelser som utmanar den nationella tolkningsramen som undersökts särskilt noggrant. Det moraliska historiebruket hänger samman med hur den makedonska frågan nyttjades till att främja minnespolitiska krav. I detta sammanhang har särskild uppmärksamhet riktats mot den slaviskmakedonska minoritetsaktivismen som prisade etnisk särart och anklagade den grekiska staten för diskriminering. Dess historiebruk underblåste föreställningar om ett överhängande hot mot den grekiska nationalstaten och tilltalade som sådant också grupperingar inom den grekiska vänstern, som i den slaviskmakedonska kritiska berättelsen såg ett medel till förändring av rådande samhällsordning och den nationella historiekulturen, genom att blottlägga statens ”ideologiska historiebruk”. En grupp som brukade historien moraliskt och som i viss utsträckning även länkade sin minnespolitiska dagordning till den makedonska frågan återfanns bland de pontiska grekerna. Studien har belyst hur en pontisk identitet knuten till en berättelse om folkmord i Turkiet och en historia av diskriminering i Grekland växte fram i senare delen av 1980-talet och erkändes av staten 1994. Medan kapitel 3 utforskar det lokala historiekulturella landskapet i det grekiska Makedonien, belyser kapitel 4 även de förbindelser som pontiska aktivister sökte upprätta med historiska berättelser utanför den nationella historiens ramverk, huvudsakligen det armeniska folkmordet och förintelsen. Förhållandet mellan politik och historia, mellan kritiska berättelser som utmanade förhärskande uppfattningar i nationella frågor och dem som försvarade den förda politikens legitimitet och den officiella historieskrivningen, står i fokus för kapitel 5. Den makedonska konflikten medförde kolliderande anspråk på expertis inom vetenskapssamhället – mellan ämnesdiscipliner och enskilda forskare – såväl som mellan fackmän och lekmän, vilket tog sig uttryck i retoriska 325 uteslutningsmekanismer. För somliga bar den allmänna betoningen av nationell historia ett löfte med sig om finansiering och förstärkt prestige åt dem som hade denna inriktning. Andra uppfattade den makedonska krisen och historieskrivning med nationella och politiska förtecken som ett direkt hot mot den fria forskningen och Greklands överlevnad som ett demokratiskt samhälle. Den akademiska autonomin som föreföll hotad skyddades genom att insistera på en skiljelinje mellan historia som vetenskap respektive som ”ideologiskt bruk” för politiska ändamål. Detta försök att återupprätta konsensus inom vetenskapssamhället genom att vädja till professionens etiska principer blev också en utväg för historiker som med tiden sökte distansera sig från en förd politik som uppfattades som skamfilad och nationalistisk. Analysen har visat på de sammanhang i vilka den makedonska krisen växte fram och hur farhågorna för och bruket av historia kan förstås. Den första av dessa kontexter är den inrikespolitiska, närmare bestämt det grekiska samhällets demokratisering efter 1974. I det nya pluralistiska klimatet införlivades delar av den tidigare förföljda vänsterns kritiska berättelse om det nära förflutna i statens historieskrivning. Övergången från ett auktoritärt samhälle och historiekultur till en ökad öppenhet banade även väg för missnöjda gruppers identitetspolitik (slaviska makedoner, pontiska och andra anatoliska greker), grupper vars historiebruk naggade de gamla nationella och ideologiska stora berättelserna i kanten. Vid tiden för kalla krigets slut 1989 hade en allmänt spridd besvikelse gentemot de politiska ideologierna, i synnerhet socialismen, medfört en motreaktion till förmån för en mer traditionell nationalism. Det andra betydelsefulla sammanhanget återfinns i den europeiska integrationen som följde på Greklands EG-inträde 1981. Denna medförde inte endast hopp om ekonomisk vinning utan även behovet att bearbeta förlusten av nationellt självbestämmande och traditionella former av självförståelse. Grekland stod inför uppgiften att finna sin plats i det nya Europa, samtidigt som landet måste hantera den nya verklighet som 1990-talets krig på Balkan medförde. Särskilt historiker betonade att denna process gjorde det nödvändigt att europeisera nationens värderingar och uppfattningar kring historia, en uppgift som försvårades av Greklands hållning i den makedonska frågan och det sätt på vilket man slog vakt om ”historiska rättigheter”. Även aktivister som, huvudsakligen i den grekiska diasporan, var sysselsatta med att marknadsföra denna fråga pekade på behovet av att modernisera aspekter av den nationella historiekulturen i en tid av europeiskt enande och konvergerande historieutbildningar. Det som ovan beskrivits har ett nära samband med det tredje stora sammanhanget, som även det är av transnationell art. Den nationella historiekulturen är inte avskild från omvärlden; föreställningar om det förflutna rör sig över nationella gränser. På global nivå sammanföll den makedonska konflikten med de s.k. history wars, historiekrig som rasade vid samma tid runtom i världen. Dessa återspeglar i sin tur urholkandet av de stora nationella och ideologiska berättelserna i västerländska samhällen, de identitets- och minnespolitiska kraven hos under- och ickestatliga aktörer, de mänskliga rättigheternas paradigm och 326 beklagandets politik (the politics of regret), som anammar nationell skuld som ny princip för politisk legitimitet. Trenden inom transnationell historiekultur mot en mer universell moral, symboliserad av den ”amerikaniserade” (och ”europeiserade”) förintelsens moral innebar en ytterligare utmaning mot de nationella historiekulturerna. Den pontiska folkmordsberättelsen (och dess nationaliserade förlängning) analyseras som svarande till kravet på en ”amerikanisering” av grekisk historiekultur. I detta sammanhang lyfts den grekiska diasporans roll fram, inte endast som instrumentell i utformningen av Greklands utrikespolitiska dagordning, men även i egenskap av förmedlare av historiekulturella angelägenheter och behovet av anpassning till transnationell omgivning. Konsekvenser av denna ”amerikaniserade” folkmordsberättelse diskuteras. Ett fjärde sammanhang, med en både nationell och transnationell dimension, är det akademiska, inom vilket forskare debatter och formar historiens representation. Identitetspolitikens ankomst och den makedonska konflikten stod även i samband med den objektivistiska historieskrivningens legitimitetskris och den postmoderna utmaningen. Urholkningen av staters bärande historieberättelse och tolkningsföreträde motsvarades i viss utsträckning av ett undergrävt förtroende för den traditionella historieskrivningens trovärdighet och auktoritet. Denna urholkning kunde tolkas som ett hot mot själva historievetenskapen och professionen. Ett annat sätt att bemöta detta hot var att betrakta såväl det som den makedonska krisen som en uppfordran till perspektivskifte inom forskning och historieskrivning. Samspelet mellan politik och historia, mellan förståelsen av svunna realiteter, nutida bekymmer och förväntningar inför framtiden formade sålunda den politiska krisen och banade väg för den grekiska historiekulturens förändring.

Scholarship on the modern history of the Middle East has undergone profound revision in the previous three decades or so. Many earlier perceptions, largely based on modernization theory, have been either contested or modified. However, the perception of the Egyptian ulama (the traditionally-educated, religious Muslim scholars) in academic scholarship remains largely affected by the legacy of hypotheses of the modernization theory. Old assumptions that the Egyptian ulama were submissive to political power and passive players incapable of accommodating, let alone of fathoming, conditions of the modern world, and who chose or were forced to retreat from this world, losing much, if not all, of their relevance and significance, still infuse the scholarly literature. Making use of materials obtained from the Egyptian National Archives, this study offers an examination of modern legal reform in Egypt from the nineteenth century through the first part of the twentieth century with the ulama and their legal institutions in mind. As the findings of this study effectively illustrate, the Egyptian ulama were by no means submissive. Rather, they were patient. Far from being passive agents of the past, the Egyptian ulama were active participants who played a critical role in the building of modern Egypt. The ulama had at their disposal sustained social and moral influence, a long-standing position as community leaders, a reputation as defenders and representatives of Islam, the power to validate or invalidate the political establishment by means of public and doctrinal legitimization, and the final authority over laws of family and personal status. Through these strengths, the ulama were able to influence the direction of change and to impact its scope and nature during transitional period that witnessed the making and remaking of modern Egypt. Considering the nature of changes that they allowed to be introduced to the shari-based justice system and the ones they resisted, as well as their stance regarding social matters, the Egyptian ulama comprehended and recognized modernity as useful. Advanced techniques had to be embraced to strengthen state institutions. However, the ulama thwarted massive and sudden adoption of modernity's cultural elements, so that Egypt would not become a chaotic country and go astray. On the weight of their position as the ultimate authority over family law, the Egyptian ulama blocked rapid social change imposed from the top. Alterations to family law and the social structure were undertaken gradually and with a great deal of delicacy. Therefore, the long-standing social order was not suddenly destroyed and replaced with a new one. Instead, changes to the long-standing social structure were allowed to evolve slowly, while the core was largely preserved. The ulama's far-reaching plan, which was realized in the long run, was to maintain Islam's position in modern Egypt as a guide and as the main source of legitimacy. As will be shown in this study, the history of the Egyptian ulama reveals not passivity, detachment, or submission but careful, and deliberate action.

This thesis is a critical study of Scottish literary culture since 1989. It examines and interrogates critical work in Scottish literary studies through a ‘critical nationalist’ approach. This approach aims to provide a refinement of cultural nationalist literary criticism by prioritising the oppositional politics of recent Scottish writing, its criticism of institutional and state processes, and its refusal to exempt Scotland from this critique. In the introduction I identify two fundamental tropes in recent Scottish literary criticism: opposition to a cultural nationalist critical narrative which is overly concerned with ‘Scottishness’ and critical centralising of marginalised identity in the establishment of a national canon. Chapter one interrogates a tendency in Scottish literary studies which reads Scottish literature in terms of parliamentary devolution, and demonstrates how a critical nationalist approach avoids the pitfalls of this reading. Chapter two is a study of two novels by the critically neglected and politically Unionist author Andrew O’Hagan, arguing that these novels criticise an insular and regressive Scotland in order to reveal an ambivalent, ‘Janus-faced’ nationalism. Chapter three examines representations of Scottish traditional and folk music in texts by A. L. Kennedy and Alan Bissett, engaging with the Scottish folk tradition since the 1950s revival in order to demonstrate literature and music’s ambivalent responses to aspects of literary and cultural nationalism. Chapter four examines texts by Janice Galloway, Alasdair Gray and James Kelman, analysing the relationships they construct between gender, nation and class. Chapter five examines three contemporary Scottish texts and elucidates an ethical turn in Scottish literary studies, which reads contemporary writing in terms of appropriation and exploitation.

This thesis explores the history of the New Age movement through a political analysis of influential New Age books. By drawing upon cultural, religious and American studies, and concepts from literary criticism and political science, a new understanding of the movement becomes possible. This thesis analyses the ideological representations and rhetorical strategies employed in both New Age literature and American presidential discourse. It is argued that their shared imagery and discursive features indicate that New Age writings derive their ideological underpinnings and textual devices from dominant beliefs of American nationalism. This historical examination begins with the Cold War in the late 1940s and ends with the 1990s. Each chapter traces parallels between a particular presidential discourse and New Age texts published in the same decade commencing with Dwight D. Eisenhower and The Doors of Perception and finishing with William J. Clinton and The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure. It argues that the appropriation of particular spiritualities in New Age texts is closely related to contemporary American geo-political interests and understandings. Major New Age spiritual trends are derived from regions, most often in the third world, which are considered to be under threat from forces such as Communism. New Age writings construct an imaginary possession of these worlds, reconfiguring these sites into frontiers of American influence. In particular, this study examines the influence of the jeremiads and the ensuing Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny ideologies upon post-war national beliefs and the extent to which these understandings of nationalism inform New Age discourse. Representations of time and space, destiny and landscape, and self and other in these literary and political contexts are analysed. From this perspective, the eclecticism that marks the New Age can be historically understood as a shifting cultural expression of Cold War and post-Cold War political responses. Consequently, New Age literature is one of the means by which dominant American identity is reproduced and disseminated in what seems to be an alternative spiritual context.

The Papuan Official Collection is a unique colonial collection assembled between 1907 and 1938 by government officers of the Australian administration of the Territory of Papua. It represents the first instance in the world where a colonial government made ethnographic collecting a requisite duty of its field officers. This unusual turn of events came at the insistence of Papua's first and longest serving Lieutenant-Governor, J.H.P. Murray, who administered the colony for over three decades. The story of how Murray came to establish an official government collection, and its subsequent formation, interpretation, and display over several decades, provides a case study par excellence for examining the complex relationship between colonialism, collecting and anthropology, which emerged over the course of the twentieth century. This study explores the genesis and history of the Papuan Official Collection, and situates it within the wider rubric of Australian colonialism. It establishes Murray as one of the earliest colonial governors in the world to implement, and publically advocate for, anthropology as a tool for colonial administration. It charts the rise of colonial discourses that linked loss of culture to physical demise in Pacific populations, and documents its influence on Australian colonial policy. Its findings suggest that the protection, preservation and management of Indigenous cultural heritage should not be considered a sideline of Australian colonial policy in Papua, but rather one of its most defining features. Over the course of its lifespan the Papuan Official Collection has been displayed in four different museums providing an opportunity to examine how a fixed body of objects (the collection) moved across time and space, to be re-interpreted into different conceptual frameworks: as curios and antiquities; ethnographic artefacts; scientific specimens; artworks; and, finally, as historic objects. My institutional history of the POC cautions against the assumption that colonial collections were always used as uncontested propaganda, which metropolitan museums were content to display on behalf of the imperial mission. While the Murray administration in Papua was able to provide goods and information to the various museums which housed the Collection, each institution had its own competing agendas and the relationship was not always a smooth one.

This dissertation investigates the negotiation of history within the history textbook revision conducted by the Norden Associations between 1919 and 1972. The thesis combines an examination of the discussions surrounding the revision with an understanding of the organization of the revision process to study the negotiations between representatives of different historical cultures and the conditions within these historical cultures.  At the end of World War I, the teaching of history was challenged by internationalists and school­teachers as a chauvinistic and warmongering subject. The war was a catalyst for the emergence of history textbook revisions in general, and in the Nordic countries the war also became a catalyst for efforts to promote Nordic understanding and cooperation. These two outcomes of the war experience merged in the Norden Associations’ history textbook revision. The revision was promoted as both an effort to reach an agreement on a common Nordic history and an effort to present to the international community a peaceful corner of the world.  The theoretical framework of this dissertation draws on the concept of the nation as an imagined community and sees national historical cultures as being reflective of the community at that time and place. The discussions of historical events in the thesis are treated as motifs of a national myth, and they are scrutinized as part of the cognitive, political, and aesthetic dimensions of historical culture. The organizational features of the revision are studied through a network analysis of the organizational field.  Prior to World War II, involvement in the revision was reserved almost exclusively for historians. From the end of the 1950s, however, the initiative shifted towards teachers and teacher trainers. This dissertation shows that the revision was organized with an emphasis on national boundaries even though the revision itself was an effort to transcend these boundaries.  The results of this thesis show that the history within the revision was such an integral part of national identity that it was almost impossible to reach any understanding of a common Nordic history. Most motifs, such as the nation’s founding, liberation, golden age, and decline, within the individual national myths had very little common ground and they often contradicted each other. The debates in regards to historical events were also highly political. The historians involved in the revision process could not see past their own national context and were not able to approach the subject from a purely methodological or scientific stance. Pedagogical issues in the textbooks were almost completely ignored.  In conclusion, the history textbook revision conducted by the Norden Associations should probably be seen as a defense of nationalistic hegemony in the understanding of history and cultural identity instead of as a challenge to that hegemony. In addition, the decline in impact of the textbook revision in the 1960s can be explained as a result of this nationalistic identity giving way to the prosperity of a new hegemony that was more liberal, Eurocentric, and global.
Historia utan gräns: Den internationella historieboksrevisionen 1919-2009

The debate over the display of the Confederate battle flag in public places throughout the South focus on the flag's display by state governments such South Carolina and Mississippi. The state of Texas is rarely placed in this debate, and neither has the debate adequately explore the role of high schools' use of Confederate symbols. Schools represent the community and serve as a symbol of its values. A school represented by Confederate symbols can communicate a message of intolerance to a rival community or opposing school during sports contests. Within the community, conflict arose when an opposition group to the symbols formed and asked for the symbols' removal in favor of symbols that were seen more acceptable by outside observers. Many times, an outside party needed to step in to resolve the conflict. In Texas, the conflict between those in favor and those oppose centered on the Confederate battle flag, and the memory each side associated with the flag. Anglos saw the flag as their school spirit. African Americans saw hatred.

Le présent travail de recherche entend passer au crible l’Histoire contemporaine de l’Espagne grâce à la production romanesque de Lourdes Ortiz. Écrivaine révélée avec son premier roman Luz de la memoria en 1976, dans lequel elle brosse le portrait de sa génération, Lourdes Ortiz cherche à réhabiliter la mémoire des vaincus de la future Transition et à faire émerger les vérités cachées. En ce sens, cette thèse s’attache à étudier exhaustivement trois romans Luz de la memoria (1976), La fuente de la vida (1995) et Andrés (1971) un roman jamais publié, en adoptant une approche à la fois littéraire, historique, sociale et politique. À partir de différentes historiographies, d’ouvrages consacrés à l’écrivaine, d’archives privées, de commentaires de la propre auteure, ce travail vise à analyser quelle est la nature du positionnement idéologique de cette ancienne militante du Parti Communiste Espagnol face à des évènements historiques qu’elle a vécus. Parallèlement, il s’agit d’appréhender dans quelle mesure les dispositifs formels adoptés dans ses récits invitent le lecteur à remettre en question le discours dominant. Ce travail vise à actualiser la connaissance de cette écrivaine engagée, dont la critique politique lucide et clairvoyante propose un autre regard sur les enjeux de l’Histoire contemporaine
The present thesis aims to examine Spain’s contemporary History with a fine-tooth comb thanks to Lourdes Ortiz’ novels production. This author became known because of her first novel Luz de la Memoria published in 1976, in which she paints her generation’s portrait and attempted to redeem the memory of the coming Transition victims, through hidden truths yet to be unearthed. With this in mind, this PhD dissertation endeavours to study three novels exhaustively, Luz de la memoria (1976), La Fuente de la vida (1995) and Andrés (1971) - the latter being unpublished – while approaching literature, history, society and politics at the same time. Through different historiographies, publications dedicated to the writer, private archives and commentaries from the author herself, this study aims to analyse what would be the ideological positioning of this former Spanish Communist Party activist, compared to the historical events she went through. In parallel, this work is about to apprehend how the formal orientations she is using in her novels would tempt the reader to reconsider the dominant thinking. This thesis intends to bring this committed writer to light, whose lucid and clear-sighted political criticism offers another view to the contemporary History stakes

Cette thèse a pour objectif d'étudier le monde journalistique turinois sous le régime fasciste, et en particulier lors de la deuxième décennie du régime. Cette période, coïncidant avec la montée et la consolidation du consensus (1929-1936) avant une remise en question progressive (1936-1940), est pour le journalisme italien celle de l'instauration progressive du contrôle de la profession par le régime. La répression, puis la mise au pas de la presse nationale et régionale, la création de structures de contrôle, particulièrement avec le Syndicat national fasciste des journalistes et son albo ou le ministère de la Culture populaire, l'uniformisation et l’institutionnalisation de la presse, notamment pour des usages propagandistes, bouleversent le monde journalistique et ses acteurs. Il s'agit dès lors de se focaliser sur les parcours collectifs et individuels de ces journalistes, en prenant comme laboratoire d'étude la ville de Turin. Les influences politiques, sociales et culturelles font en effet de cette ville un lieu particulier pour le fascisme, difficile à « normaliser ». Turin possède par ailleurs deux des plus importants journaux du pays (la Gazzetta del Popolo et La Stampa). L'étude prosopographique des 278 journalistes identifiés permet de mettre en perspective des caractéristiques sociales particulières, notamment en terme d'origine géographique ou de niveau d'instruction. De même, en s’intéressant aux liens avec le monde politique local et national, elle éclaire les frontières mouvantes entre politique et journalisme et permet de replacer la question du journalisme dans le cadre plus large du régime fasciste et particulièrement de ses ambiguïtés, entre contrôle, surveillance et répression d'un côté et les limites du totalitarisme de l'autre. L'étude prosopographique met également en évidence une continuité certaine, en terme de rédacteurs, entre le journalisme de l'époque libérale et celui de l'époque fasciste, remettant en question l'image d'une « épuration » sévère et totale de la profession. Dès lors, la question de la place nouvelle génération de journalistes, formés techniquement et imprégnés d'idéologie fasciste et dont la création était chère à certains hiérarques fascistes, Ermanno Amicucci en tête, prend tout son sens. Enfin, la seconde partie de la thèse s’intéresse à quelques parcours singuliers et itinéraires comparés, permettant d’illustrer une partie de la diversité des attitudes des journalistes turinois confrontés au régime fasciste et à sa volonté d'instituer un « nouveau modèle de journalisme ». Ces parcours se proposent ainsi d'éclairer plus spécifiquement certains aspects centraux de l'univers journalistique durant le régime, abordant notamment l'épuration des années 1927-1931 (avec par exemple Gino Pestelli, Leo Galetto ou Santi Savarino), les liens avec le monde politique local (Angelo Appiotti, Leo Rea) ou même la question des lois raciales (Deodato Foà). Entre relative résistance et renoncement, entre acceptation et tractations, entre illusions et pragmatisme, ces trajectoires biographiques mettent alors au jour des postures diverses dont les croisements, les stratégies, les contenus s'insèrent dans un cadre bien plus large, celui du ventennio fasciste et de ses tragédies
This work studies the turinese journalistic world during fascist system, especially the second decade. This decade coincide with the rise of the consensus (1929-1936) before the first time of contestation (1936-1940). The italian journalism is more and more controlled by the political authorities. The repression of the national and regional papers, and then the organization, standardization and institutionalization of the press, change drastically the journalism background. In view of this, this work focuses on collective and individual trajectories, with Turin as study place. The political, social and cultural influences of Turin make this city a particular place for the fascism, hard to “normalize”, and which possess two of the principal papers of the country (the Gazzetta del Popolo and La Stampa). The prosopographical study of the 278 identify journalists allows to put in perspective social characteristics (geographical origins, level of schooling etc...). The national and regional political connections light up the moving mark between politic and journalism and allow to replace the journalism question in the ampler setting of fascist regime and his ambiguities (between control, surveillance and repression, on one hand, and limits of totalitarianism of the other hand). The prosopographical study shows also a clear continuity of journalist between liberal and fascist periods, which questions the image of a harsh and total “purge” of the profession. In this context, the question of the place of the new journalistic generation, technically formed and permeated of fascist ideology, like Ermanno Amicucci and other fascist figures wanted, is central. Finally, the second part of the study takes an interest in a few singular trajectories and compared itineraries, which allows to illustrate a part of the diversity of turinese journalist attitudes, confronted with a regime who wants to institute a “new journalism model”. This trajectories intend to light up more specifically some of central aspects of journalistic world during the regime, like the purge of the years 1927-1931 (with for example Gino Pestelli, Leo Galetto or Santi Savarino),, the connections with local politic world (Angelo Appiotti, Leo Rea) or the racial laws and their impact (Deodoato foà). Between opposition and resignation, acceptation and negotiation, illusions and pragmatism, this biographical trajectories expose some varied positions, insert into a ampler context, which is the fascist ventennio, and his tragedies

Examining Board: Professor Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, IUE (Supervisor); Professor Lucy Riall, IUE (Relatore IUE); Professor Martin Baumeister, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München (Relatore esterno); Professor Catherine Brice, Université Paris-Est Créteil (Relatore esterno).
Defence date: 7 November 2012
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This dissertation examines the forms and spaces of entertainment, such as theatres, cinemas and music halls, in Rome between 1911, when celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Italy’s unification took place, and the First World War. This was a time characterized by the emergence of popular and mass culture and by the spread of a specifically nationalist culture that changed dramatically after the war against Libya in 1911. By adopting a broad definition of "culture,” including both high and low culture, this dissertation explores the ways in which a specific theatrical tradition staged the nation’s history, in particular that of the Risorgimento, after Italian unification. It then broadens the analysis to other forms of entertainment. This dissertation argues that the 1909-1911 celebrations were marked by a renewed attention to the "patriotic” tradition, and spurred the emergence of new theatrical and cinematographic productions, which became particularly relevant in the context of the First World War, thus giving substance to the "culture de guerre”. I argue that theatre shows and movies avoided representing the violence and suffering that characterized the war, partly because of the existence of various forms of censorship. However, the presence of wounded bodies among the audience gave way to a dual representation, and transformed theatres, cinemas and music halls into privileged spaces where the war and the domestic front met. By taking into account the case-study of a girls’ school, I show the gendered dimension of civil society mobilization. Finally, this dissertation analyzes the role entertainment played in "building the enemy,” identified with Kultur, and the emergence of a moral discourse about entertainment, which coincided with the spread of popular culture - especially the cinema - and became even stronger and more complex with the outbreak of the First World War.

More than a confined account of the musical activity of the Chicano Movement, my research considers Chicana/o music of the period as a critical part of the protest music genres of Latin America (eg. Nueva canción, canto nuevo) and the Unites States (eg. labor/union and civil rights songs). Consequently, although situated squarely within the context of the Chicano Movement, this project necessarily examines the musical yet political links between Chicano musicians and their counterparts in the American labor movement, Civil Rights Movement, and Latin American social movements of the period. Coupled with the mobilization of their own Mexican musical and cultural traditions, Chicano musicians engaged these other repertoires of struggle to form the nexus of Chicana/o musical expression during the Movement. By viewing Chicana/o music within this broader lens, my research demonstrates that the complexities of the movimiento and Chicana/o political struggle cannot be adequately understood without thinking about how Chicano cultural producers engage a diversity of other race, ethnic, and regional struggles. Rather than assume a homologous relationship between music and identity, my research historicizes musical practices in the context of their struggle for political, social, and cultural rights and resources and the strategies employed by diverse communities working together to overcome the failures of governmental and institutional programs. The creative dialogues and musical exchanges that occurred among Chicano musicians suggest not only forms of ethnic solidarity but also the culturally “hybrid” expressions that shape even nationalist movements. Key to this approach is recognizing the simultaneously global and local character of Chicana/o musical production, where the flows of transnationalism circulated not only ideas, peoples, and sounds, but also political struggles. This project thus raises a number of critical questions about Chicano Movement music and its political import. Ultimately, I suggest that it was the ability to perform authoritatively within the bi-cultural and increasingly transnational space of the Chicano experience that empowered movimiento music to express the feelings of autonomy engendered by the Movement.
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Defence date: 9 July 2001
Examining Board: Prof. Dr. Marina Cattaruzza, Universität Bern ; Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Höpken, Georg-Eckert-Institut für Schulbuchforschung Braunschweig / Universität Leipzig ; Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kaschuba, Humboldt-Universität Berlin ; Prof. Dr. Bo Stråth, Europäisches Hochschulinstitut Florenz
First made available online on 4 May 2018

Defence Date: 20 September 2010
Examining Board: Prof. Heinz Gerhard Haupt (EUI) – Supervisor; Prof. Donatella Della Porta (EUI); Prof. Philippe Buton (Université de Reims); Prof. Simone Neri Serneri (Università di Siena)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses

Defence date: 21 March 2017
Examining Board: Professor Giovanni Federico, Università di Pisa (EUI Supervisor); Professor Youssef Cassis, European University Institute; Professor Elena San Román López, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; Professor Franco Amatori, Università Bocconi
The research project is centred on Spanish economic policies from 1937 to 1959, which guided the creation and development of the Instituto Nacional de Industria (the Spanish State-owned company, I.N.I. hereafter). Particular attention will be paid to the similarities, or differences, between these policies and those of Fascist Italy during the 1930s until the 1950s, especially as referred to the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (the Italian State-owned company, I.R.I. hereafter). I aim to capture the analogies between the two public entities, I.N.I. and I.R.I., through the analysis of their financial ratios, statutes, sector investment and production. If it is true that, in Italy, different economic policies were applied all along from the thirties to the fifties, some of them were autarkic. I.R.I can be seen as a reflection of the regime’s will, mirroring, mirroring the evolution of Italian economic policies. Since the different roles of the I.R.I. and its adaptation to the decisionmaking process of the Italian regime have not been considered by the literature that dealt with the I.N.I., especially with respect to the classification of the autarkic models that the I.R.I. was called to apply, my research attempts to identify which of the I.R.I. roles were copied by the I.N.I., and in particular whether it was the ‘war autarkic’ model, adopted by the I.R.I. between 1939 and 1943. Particular attention will also be dedicated to explaining why the creation of the I.N.I. was inspired by the Italian model of the I.R.I. The ultimate purpose of my project will be to provide a new insight on the economic policies of the First Francoism by discussing whether postwar policy in Spain was a continuity of the ‘war autarkic’ policy of the Civil War, and not just a ‘normal autarkic’ policy.

Defence date: 1 March 1996
Examining board: Prof. Christof Dipper (Technische Hochschule Darmstadt) ; Prof. Peter Hertner, supervisor (Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg) ; Prof. Brigitte Mazchl-Walling (Universitaet Innsbruck) ; Prof. Raffaele Romanelli, co-supervisor (IUE, Firenze) ; Prof. Fabio Rugge (Università di Pavia)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

This dissertation examines U.S.-Cuban cultural exchange around the Cuban revolutions of 1933 and 1959. It argues that the historical period from 1930-1970 represents a critical juncture in global politics, when fascination and dismay for Cuban revolutionary struggles spawned new ideas about art, aesthetics, governance, and jurisprudence as part of new state functions and cosmopolitan publics. Drawing from U.S. and Cuban sources, this project documents the ways in which cultural producers from across the political spectrum used the language of revolution to craft claims about race, class, gender, empire, and nationhood. It explains the fractured relationship following the 1959 revolution by beginning in the 1930s, when narratives of U.S.-led Pan-Americanism splintered and frayed within the broader project of neocolonialism. Cultural expressions--from folksongs and poems to presidential speeches and tourist literature--demonstrate multiple ideological positions and aesthetic forms that reveal a tension between Pan-American camaraderie on the one hand and neocolonial violence on the other. I use poetry, journalism, plays, federal policy, music, and radical literature to illustrate ideas about Cuba that spanned the ideological gamut--from socialist utopia to the tragedy of dictatorship--and their location in the generational transition from the Good Neighbor policy to Cold War containment. In the United States, these two political moments were anchored between the New Deal coalition and rise of the Old Left on the one hand, and the dawning of Kennedy/Johnson liberal internationalism and the New Left on the other. At the same time in Cuba the revolutionary culture industries restructured nationalist narratives and political ambitions based on anti-Yankee opposition, which ultimately ushered in a new Cuban state that self-fashioned itself as a leader of the Third World. I present a case study that reveals how political and cultural vectors operate in multiple directions, creating the overarching conditions that enable "minor" states to exert gravitational pull on superpowers in the production of new local tastes and sensibilities from Harlem to Havana.
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Defence date: 17 October 2002
Examining board: Richard Bellamy (Trinity Hall, Cambridge) ; Yves Mény (European University Institute) ; Gaetano Quagliarello (Centro di Metodologia delle Scienze Sociali della Luiss Guido Carli) ; Raffaele Romanelli (European University Institute)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 23 November 2009
Examining Board: Prof. Jay Winter (Yale) [supervisor]; Prof. Rainer Bauböck (EUI); Prof. Gil Loescher (University of Oxford); Prof. Leo Lucassen (Leiden)
First made available online 20 March 2019
The primary purpose of this interdisciplinary study is to show the value of history in investigating asylum policymaking from 1989 to 2008. Chapter 1 provides a short summary of asylum before 1989. It focuses especially on the power, influence and composition of actors who advocated for generous asylum policies and actors who proposed restrictive asylum policies at crucial times throughout the twentieth century. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 analyse the case studies of Australia, Italy and Ireland. By setting traditional emigration countries against a traditional immigration country, EU countries against a non-EU country, Catholic countries against a multidenominational country, islands against a peninsula, common law states against a civil law state, as well as countries where boat people drove asylum debates against one that lacked boat people, many divergences and convergences emerged. Every country had, to a certain degree, a unique asylum system based on its own history, identity and geography. The comparative Chapter 5 reveals that despite inherent national differences, noticeable international asylum trends also appeared during this period. In contrast to people who applied for asylum during the Cold War, asylum applicants in the 1990s provided limited political and economic returns for receiver states. Accordingly, governing political parties inclined towards the formation of more restrictive asylum policies. But secular and religious NGOs, INGOs and certain opposition political parties loudly protested by referencing humanitarian ideals, national commitments to human rights and the rule of law. Acknowledging the challenges posed by actors sympathetic to asylum seekers, governments in the 2000s attempted to securitize and externalise asylum, reduce the influence of the courts, and expedite the deportation of rejected asylum seekers. The conclusion suggests that governments in Europe, North America and Australasia are likely to build on advances made through the 2000s to restrict asylum even further in the next decade, especially in the wake of the economic crisis of 2008- 09.

Defence date: 20 November 2006
Examining board: Prof. Heinz-Gerhard Haupt ; Prof. Yves Lequin ; Prof. Guido Neppi Modona ; Prof. Raffaele Romanelli (supervisor)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 10 June 2014
Examining Board: Professor Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (EUI/External Supervisor) Professor Lucy Riall (EUI) Professor Carlos Forcadell (Universidad de Zaragoza) External Supervisor Professor Martin Baumeister (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München/Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom).
La presente tesis pretende responder al interrogante de cómo se articuló la cultura histórica nacional en la España franquista, las estrategias aplicadas por el régimen, las narrativas diseminadas, así como la función desempeñada por los historiadores como garantes cualificados del pasado nacional. Para ello, se analizan las políticas del pasado desplegadas por la dictadura y, en concreto, las diversas conmemoraciones históricas organizadas por el régimen. Al condensar de manera espectacular las narrativas sobre la historia, las conmemoraciones se erigieron en elementos de especial relevancia en la configuración del pasado nacional. Un análisis que efectuamos mediante una pluralidad de enfoques vinculados a la historia cultural, la historia de la historiografía y la historia cultural de la política. En cualquier caso, las conmemoraciones históricas se articularon como espacios dinámicos que permitieron la competencia de diferentes agentes -tanto individuales como institucionales- y la confluencia de una multiplicidad de agendas conmemorativas. Esta perspectiva, permite analizar el carácter complejo del régimen, la diversidad de esferas (local, nacional, internacional) involucradas en la celebración del pasado, así como los diferentes proyectos político-ideológicos implicados en la producción del pasado. A su vez, el estudio de las conmemoraciones y la activa participación en las mismas de los historiadores permite analizar la disciplina histórica de manera integral, superando diversas interpretaciones lineales, y atendiendo a los fenómenos de internacionalización, las dinámicas de intercambio y los procesos de articulación de una disciplina que, como territorio políticamente intervenido, se encontró supeditada a los condicionantes del régimen.

Removed from its artistic origins in the French avant-garde during the interwar period, the European based group known as the situationist international is often represented as being solely occupied with politics to the exclusion of all else, particularly art and aesthetics. In what follows I argue that throughout the sixties the anti-aesthetic position was actually the governing model in France obliging the avant-garde to adjust their strategies accordingly. Artists and artists' collectives that placed politics before aesthetics were the norm, enjoying widespread popularity and recognition from both the public and the French State. These overtly partisan groups and individuals sapped art of the power it had enjoyed in the fifties as a venue removed, or at least distanced from, formal politics. In response, the situationists officially rejected the art world, turning to the popular and vernacular culture of the streets in an attempt to get beyond both classical aesthetic principals and the overt propagandistic objectives of groups such as le Salon de la jeunePeinture. Turning to the climactic moment of 1968 I track the ways in which these debates informed the posters and graffiti which marked the unfinished revolution, sorting out the various aesthetic positions and political persuasions that dominated the events. My thesis contends that the situationists were not anti-aesthetic, that they simply advocated a different kind of aesthetics: one that rejected traditional notions of beauty for the more active and open concept of poiesis or poetry. Beyond words on a page, this notion implied art as a way of life, emphasizing production, creation, formation and action and can be traced back to the groups prewar origins in the Dada and surrealist movements. Moreover, this concept of poetry was not adverse to issues of form being highly dependent on the materiality and physicality of the urban centre, specifically the streets. Finally my conclusion expands upon the similarities between this notion of poetry and the 17th century understanding of beauty, the latter concept being associated with a subtle criticality and strategic wit. It was this interpretation of beauty that defined and produced the art of 1968.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
This dissertation analyzes the efforts to develop a pluralistic political culture and democratic practices of governance through the training of democratic leaders in Germany's first school of public affairs, the German School of Politics. The investigation of the thought-leaders that formed this school illustrates two main points. First, through the prism of the School, I detail the efforts to develop a conception of civil society that, by being grounded in civility, could retie social bonds and counter the brutalization of politics characteristic of the post-World War One years. By providing practical knowledge, courses in public affairs could not only free Germans from the blinders of ideologies, but also instill in them an ethos that would help viewing the political enemy as an opponent with an equal right to participate in the political process. Secondly, I point to the limits of trans-national philanthropy in supporting the development of civil society in young democracies. By analyzing the relationship between U.S. foundations and the School, I focus on the asymmetry that existed between American ideals of democracy and the realities of the German political system. This study thus focuses on the dynamics between the actions of institutions and organizations, and the broader social behaviors that constitute public life.

The focus of this thesis is the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia since the late 1990s. The arguments outlined in the existing works about the recent Islamic fundamentalism can be categorised into four topics: Islamic politics, interpretation of religious teachings, global Islamic radicalism and endogenous militant Muslims in the past. This thesis suggests an alternative approach. Based on theories developed within the studies of social movements, identity politics and consumer culture, it is argued that Indonesian Islamic fundamentalism is a form of resistance to problems of oppression and domination and, essentially, reflects social antagonism. The resistance takes the path of the struggle for identity because oppression and domination work at the level of self and everyday life. This kind of oppression and domination takes away one's critical abilities to take independent action and to produce one's own meanings of life in order to create a sense of certainty. The source of oppression is the rapid flow of images and signs that increasingly colonise the fabric of everyday life in modern society. The flowing images reflect the consumer culture, which constitutes the increasingly dominant social and cultural order. Capitalist development contributes significantly to its emergence. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism can be seen as a negation of consumer culture. The resistance, moreover, is an attempt to reject the occupation of self and everyday life by the saturating images and is a challenge to the consumer culture's dominating power. The way the fundamentalists resist, however, is influenced by their location within the class divisions created by the same capitalist development that produces the consumer culture. Throughout this thesis the intention is not to treat knowledge as a neutral and objective instrument for passively disclosing reality. Instead, knowledge is used not only to describe a given phenomenon, but also, more importantly, to shape and produce it. Specifically, the knowledge produced here attempts to expose contradictions and conflicts within the existing socio-cultural order in which Islamic fundamentalism emerges. My aim is to produce a different reality of the phenomenon in order to promote a more critical understanding of the current structural conditions.

Defence date: 11 September 2015
Examining Board : Professor Philipp Ther (University of Vienna/EUI) – Supervisor; Professor Maria Todorova (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) – Co- Supervisor; Professor Pavel Kolár (EUI); Professor Bogdan Murgescu (University of Bucharest).
The thesis examines the structure and functions of political festivals in socialist Romania, between 1948 and 1989, focusing especially on their roles in mirroring the official communist ideology and its shifts between the Marxist-Leninist doctrine and nationalism, as well as in shaping a new type of culture for members of the working-class and peasantry. This analysis illustrates political festivals as instruments of institutional and mass control, and as means of self-representation for the communist regime, with the purpose of providing political legitimization. The research has focused on a comparative perspective, developed at two levels: a chronological one – between youth and workers festivals in Romania, during the 1950s and 1960s, and the so-called National Festival of Socialist Education "Song of Romania", during the 1970s and 1980s – and a structural comparison – between the official image of festivals in propaganda, at a general level, and that of festivals as perceived by ordinary people, at a case-study level. Political festivals constituted an important means of institutional and mass control, as well as of creating a new type of culture, in socialist Romania. Youth and workers festivals characterized the official cultural atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s. Later on, in the aftermath of Nicolae Ceausescu's policy of integrating nationalism in the Marxist-Leninist ideology, in order to legitimize his personality cult, political festivals became the main instrument of forging the new man of the communist regime. Benefiting from a wide and diverse array of primary sources and material, the thesis addressed the following questions, among others: What was the development and evolution of political festivals in socialist Romania? What material and discursive contexts determined the selection or replacement of political symbols in the framework of political festivals? What were the effects of political festivals on everyday life for ordinary people? How did political festivals deal with the issue of leisure, free time and continuous education?

In order to explore the changing spatial politics and the changing ideas of "right to the city", I look in particular at how different ideologies have been used in different historical periods in planning the city, as well as the practices that led to spatial change. Using Henri Lefebvre's theory of the "right to the city", I suggest three dimensions in observing the right to the city, namely, the right to settle, the right to be different from the "modem city", and the right to keep the structure of meaning with regards to daily life and local space. By examining historical materials and using field work data, I show how "the right to the city" was ignored by the central and local governments during the planning process. I point out that the state always acts as the main factor that shapes the space of the city. The urban planning process was affected by the change of spatial politics, the politics of heritage, and the production of space from the state. Despite this, residents' daily lives help to shape the structure of meaning between their lives and their local space. Thus, the local residents have been able to find their own space in the city.
Quanzhou is a medium-size ancient city in Fujian, and as with other old cities in China today, its urban space became the arena of negotiation between different local and global social forces and the state. There is also great deal of politics and ambiguity around the concepts of "cultural heritage", and "modernization".
This research studies the changing spatial politics from the traditional to the modem state, and the factors that affect the form of space in Quanzhou's different historical stages. The central questions are: how have spatial politics led to the changes of local culture; in what ways have the local residents had their own right to the city and how have they reacted to the state's spatial politics?
罗攀.
Adviser: Joseph Prosco.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: .
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 216-225).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts in Chinese and English.
Luo Pan.

Examining Board: Professor Stephen A. Smith, (EUI/All Souls College, University of Oxford) Professor Dirk Moses, (EUI) Professor Barbara Mittler, (University of Heidelberg) Professor Harriet Evans, (University of Westminster).
Defence date: 7 July 2014
This thesis analyses the production, content and development of cartoonist Zhang Leping's Sanmao comic strips between 1935 and 1962 in the context of the growing political and cultural significance of childhood in twentieth century China. After years of wars and dramatic political changes, Sanmao is still a recognizable visual icon in China today, and his lasting popularity makes him an interesting case-study for understanding the development of cartoon art and the political deployment of the image of the 'child' in China over the twentieth century. This thesis investigates two main problems: firstly, it aims to analyze how through his strips Zhang Leping intervened in contemporary debates about the significance and role of children in the development of the Chinese nation secondly, it follows the transformation of fictional child-hero Sanmao from a commentator on contemporary China in the early 1930s into a sustainer of the Chinese Communist Party after 1949. While Zhang Leping's comic strips have often been considered as a product of political graphic production or as reading material for children, this thesis analyzes the content of Sanmao strips employing childhood as an analytical category in order to understand the role of children in the political and social discourses which took place in China during war and revolution. By analyzing the production of Sanmao comic strips, their relevance in the political context in which they appeared, and the factors which propelled the popularity of the little hero before and after 1949, this thesis shows how the image of Sanmao has changed over time, and how it was ultimately appropriated and reshaped by the CCP in order to fit the party's official vision of history and educational aims.

Defence date: 19 March 2004
Examining board: Prof. Alan Milward, IUE (supervisor) ; Prof. Marc Lazar, Inst. d'Etudes Politiques, Paris ; Prof. Silvio Pons, Università Tor Vergata ; Prof. Arfon Rees, IUE
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017