From Cosmopolitan to Vernacular in the Language Sciences: A Global History Perspective

Sheldon Pollock's justly famous work on cosmopolitan orders and processes of vernacularization in the worlds of Latinity and Sanskrit invites questions of a comparative and global-historical character. I will raise such questions in the context of the Persianate cosmopolitan order, especially as exemplified by the early modern Ottoman Empire, focusing on the wave of vernacularizations this empire witnessed in the seventeenth–eighteenth centuries. In this process of vernacularization, new vernacular forms of philological learning appear to have played a crucial role. Building on Bourdieu's work, I will try to analyze the Ottoman cosmopolitan as a pre-modern form of linguistic domination, and vernacularization as a form of resistance. Moving beyond Bourdieu, I will be arguing for a genealogical approach that is alive to premodern non-European philological traditions, and to the historically variable relation between (philological) knowledge and power.     

Superstition in Estonian Folklore: From Official Category to Vernacular Concept [1]

Superstition (ebausk), which was introduced into Estonia as an official religious category, has become a vernacular concept that is widely used nowadays to discuss and interpret supernatural beliefs and magical practices. The present article examines the history of the concept, its current usage, and dominant attitudes towards superstitions in Estonia.     

文学史上白话的地位和新文学中白话的走向——后五四时期提倡新文学者的内部论争

20世纪20年代初,文学研究会在上海的一些人曾有力地呼应了胡适提倡最力的整理国故,但双方在具体观念上又颇有歧异,这些歧异多与“白话”相关。文学研究会的严既澄指责胡适有“用白话的标准去估量旧韵文”的倾向,双方就此展开了论争,其核心议题即“什么是中国文学史的主流”。当白话文出现走向欧化的趋势而致时人抱怨看不懂时,文学研究会的同人多认为应该是读者转换思想以适应欧化的文风,也有人主张白话文同时向“欧化”和文言开放,而胡适明确表示不同意,认为只须向大众方向努力。     

Guided by the dark: From thanatopsis to thanatourism

Abstract

Death is the one heritage that everyone shares and it has been an element of tourism longer than any other form of heritage. This paper looks at the historical development of Thanatoptic elements in travel and shows how the Dark Tourism to which this issue is devoted can be located within a historical tradition which sheds light on how it should be defined, typified and viewed today     

From Image to Identity: Building Regions by Place Promotion

This article discusses the idea of institutionalizing a region and building a regional identity by constructing a regional image. Identity and image are thus regarded as intertwining both conceptually and in the everyday practices of regional development, where regional competitiveness is emphasized. It is argued that regional identity is to some extent a prerequisite for successful image building, but the interplay is nevertheless distinctly bidirectional. This means that non-standard or newly established regions are increasingly being constructed by place promotion outside the region, although they do also become familiar to the inhabitants of the region in such an institutionalization process, so that the inhabitants will identify with them accordingly. The link between regional identity and image will largely be shaped conceptually, but the sub-regions in Finland serve as case studies for scrutinizing this linkage.     

从阴阳书到明堂礼——读银雀山汉简《迎四时》

笔者比对传世文献,缀合银雀山汉简《迎四时》残篇,发现其与《皇览》所引礼书,是相同内容文献在不同时代的传本。然而,两者在目录学分类上却分别被归入阴阳书和儒书。这不仅是文献本身在思想学术体系中的地位变迁,也反映了儒学吸收和整合阴阳学说的过程。本文尝试围绕这个问题,作一些关于汉代学术史的推论。     

《从巴黎到伯尔尼》:恩格斯的一份社会调查

对原始献和目击记录进行认真的分析,以便深入了解历史事件与人物的真实面目,这是历史科学的传统。恩格斯的《从巴黎到伯尔尼》正是一篇具有珍贵的社会史史料价值的目击记录。在这篇未完成的手稿中,恩格斯给了法兰西有关地区的风土人情以较好的评价。它是当时法国的社会情景、民间心态与自然风貌的写真,是后人研究法国近代历史的宝贵资料。     

Adwa: From monument to document

To the Italian historian the Battle of Adwa in March 1896 has offered a field of interpretation which has been heavily marked by the events that occurred between (and within) the two countries—Ethiopia and Italy—before and after the battle. Adwa has been variously depicted by Italian historiography of the liberal period as a major military defeat, a political mistake by Crispi's expansionist government and the result of deep contrasts within the newly born state over the 'colonial burden'. Fascist historiography painted Adwa as proof of liberal decay and political inefficiency. Adwa's name could be avenged only in the battlefield, which was done during Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-36. From the Ethiopian point of view, Adwa's image changes no less. Until recently, the Battle of Adwa was painted as the landmark for Ethiopian unification and independence during the colonial era. Menelik's momentous victory at Adwa crowned his bid for power in the national arena, while his successful ability to stave off external colonial pressure appeared to cancel, or rather conceal, the internal policy of expansion and consolidation of his country's rule in the region. Today's insistence on Adwa as an African victory appears to be the dominant historiographical representation. The different interpretations all contain elements of truth, yet all, if frozen into historiographical truths, become embarrassing to the historian who needs documents, rather than monuments, as tools of analysis. To many historians both in Italy and Ethiopia, Adwa's respective symbolism of victory/defeat has been transformed into an icon, an historiographical monument, unassailable and immovable. The centenary of Adwa allows us to reconsider historical events of a shared past as critical documents and biased representations reflecting their own culture and time. This article attempts to deconstruct the historiographical monument of Adwa in Italian society so as to transmit such a heavily coded event to the critical examination of future historians in both Italy and Ethiopia.