Feminism and its ‘other’: representing the ‘new woman’ of Bangladesh

This essay examines women's oppression and organizing against gender violence in contemporary Bangladesh through the lens of television. I argue that the telefilm Ayna (The Mirror, 2006), written and directed by popular film actor and women's rights activist Kabari Sarwar, offers a window into the changing social and economic landscape of contemporary Bangladesh and the complex negotiations of power and inequality across gender, class and community. Furthermore, it offers an opportunity to unpack the social messages underlying development and modernization initiatives, the new kinds of alliances as well as dependencies engendered by them, and their multiple and uneven consequences. An investigation of the representations of competing and contradictory notions of women's subjectivity and agency in this telefilm allows us to understand how these intersect with shifting notions of local/global patriarchies, feminist solidarity and women's empowerment in Bangladesh today. Further, this essay illuminates the disjunctures between representations of the ‘new woman’ circulated through development and certain feminist advocacy narratives with women's lived realities of oppression, and survival.     

Marketing genocide: Biafran propaganda strategies during the Nigerian civil war, 1967–70

Biafran propaganda played a pivotal role in the political and diplomatic conduct of the Nigerian civil war. Their propaganda campaign portrayed the war as the only possible response to a genocidal campaign against them. Despite the fact that Biafra's message remained largely focused on the genocide theme, Biafran propaganda was remarkably agile in its ability to adapt to the war's changing circumstances. Biafra's propaganda was designed to create a coherent message and intended to elicit sympathy from world public opinion and to instil a survival ethos in its population at home despite very limited communication resources. It is precisely this relationship between the aims of Biafran propaganda and the Biafrans' resourcefulness that allowed that message to be so effective, both during the war and in the collective memory of Igbo political nationalism. This article analyses Biafran print and radio propaganda as well as internal Biafran documents about the production, evaluation and monitoring of the movement's propaganda campaign to show how the secessionist message was constructed, delivered, refined and adapted.     

Society Meetings and Folklore Notes

THE ‘DISCIPLINA CLERICALIS’ OF PETRUS ALFONSI. Translated and Edited by EBERHARD HERNES. Translated into English by P. R. QUARRIE. (Routledge &; Kegan Paul) 1977. £5.95. Reviewed by K. M. Briggs.

EY UP MI DUCK. By RICHARD SCOLLINS and JOHN TITFORD, Parts 1 and 2. Ilkeston (Schollins and Titford) 1976. Pp. 95p. Reviewed by J. D. A. Widdowson.

THE FOLKLORE OF ORKNEY &;SHETLAND. By ERNEST W. MARWIOC. London (B. T. Batsford) 1975. Drawings by GAY JOHN GALSWORTHY. Pp. 215. £4.50. Reviewed by Theo Brown.

TRADITIONAL ROMANCE &; TALE. How Stories Mean. By ANNE WILSON. Ipswich (D. S. Brewer/Rowman &; Littlefield) 1976. Pp. xii and 116. £5.00. Reviewed by Theo Brown.

WESTCOUNTRY WORDS &; WAYS. By K. C. PHILLIPPS. Newton Abbot (David &; Charles) 1976. Pp. 144. Reviewed by Theo Brown.

THE ARMED PROLOGUE. A Hamlet Sequence. By WILLIAM MONTGOMERIE. Pp. 5–22. Reviewed by Theo Brown.

ENZYKLOPÄDIE DES MÄRCHENS. Handwörterbuch zur historischen und vergleichenden Erzählforschung. Ed. KURT RANKE. Vol. 1, issues 3–5. Berlin (Walter de Grǔyter) 1976/77. Cols. 577–1406. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

Haralds Biezais, Lichtgott der alten Letten. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Åboensis VIII. Uppsala, 1976. Pp. 210. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.     

Palimpsests of Progress: Erasing the Past and Rewriting the Future in Developing Societies—Case Studies of Singapore and Jakarta

The former colonial port cities of Southeast Asia are complex in both their landscapes and their collective memories. Centuries of European imperial domination have left a mark on their townscapes and, more so in some cases than in others, on their contemporary political and social cultures. During the colonial period, the integration of these port cities into global trade networks also fostered inter‐ and intra‐regional migration and, thus, the development of complex cultural mixes in their demographic composition. In recent decades, and following the attainment of political independence, this region has experienced spectacular economic growth and the development of a range of nationalisms, both of which have had a considerable impact on the recent transformation of their (capital) cityscapes. Singapore and Jakarta are presented here as case studies of the ways in which economic, political and cultural forces have interacted to produce cityscapes in which elements of the past are variously eliminated, hidden, privileged, integrated and/or reinvented.     

A short history of Mulabbis (Petah Tikva,Israel)

The following article summarizes our current knowledge of the history of Tell Mulabbis (in modern Petah Tikva). As a key archaeological site in the Yarkon River basin, it was inhabited during the Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Late Ottoman periods. Based on the published results of recent excavations, older scholarship, and hereto-unnoticed written evidence, the article examines and interprets Mulabbis's material culture within the broader contexts of the region's historical geography. Although possessing important advantages like access to water and arable land, the site was inhabited only intermittently due to malaria and changing economic and political circumstances. Within the framework of Ottoman Archaeology, the article suggests the need to pay closer attention to ‘recent’ archaeological layers. For example, the few Ottoman material remains published so far, testify to continued cultural exchange and economic ties between Mulabbis, the mountainous interior, and the southern parts of Palestine.