Conversational Modernism: Talking Czech Men into Being Gentlemen by Way of The Gentleman, 1924–30

The article provides a profile of the Czech life-style magazine Gentleman (The Gentleman), published in Prague from 1924 to 1930. The gendered nature of the magazine is stressed and discursive mechanisms effective in the formation of modern masculinity are discussed. Issues of ‘democratic aristocratism’, male fashion, gender identity, but also traces of a local inflection (T. G. Masaryk as a modern man) are among the select points of attention. While some aspects of the magazine may appear instructional, the analysis draws attention to the fact that The Gentleman actually moves between the instructional and the represented, thus leaving ample space for the reader to negotiate his position on the map of masculine modernity. Other instances of media (e.g., the nineteenth-century Konversationslexikon) and authors (Karel ?apek, Milena Jesenská) are adduced to broaden the context and to explicate the meaning of ‘conversational modernity’, that is, a negotiated representation of modernity.     

Sword,Priest and Conversion: On Religion and Apostasy in South Slav Literature in the Period of National Revival

Abstract

This article examines the works of four writers of Croatian, Slovene, Serbian and Bosniak literature in the period of National Revival, in their literary, historical and discursive contexts: Pre?ern’s Krst pri Savici, Ma?urani?’s Smrt Smail-age ?engi?a, Njego?’s Gorski vijenac and Ba?agi?’s Abdullah Pa?a. Three of the four authors were also statesmen, and all four are considered canonical national writers. There is a striking similarity between their otherwise different works, resulting from speeches by priests who either demand and justify conversion, or vehemently oppose it and call for vengeance. In all four works, the enemy is not a foreign conqueror, but an apostate who sides with the conqueror by accepting his faith. Although in all four works the values of the epic and heroic world are pronounced dead, epic action — a ’sword’ — is still very much alive. Though the central act of conversion is accompanied by religious symbolism which gives rise to the impression of a clash of religions, in all four works conversion does not have a religious meaning, it is purely political.     

包买主制与近代乡村手工业的发展

包买主制在中国近代乡村手工业、尤其是若干手工业经济区中广泛存在。乡村手工业者丧失了先前的经营独立性,他们或直接、或间接,自觉与不自觉地在资本、原料、原料供应与产品销售等多方面陷于对包买主的依附之中。包买主也呈现出多种存在形态,如商人型包买主、商人兼工场主型包买主、工场主型包买主等。包买主制适应了包买主和依附经营者双方的经济状况,它对市场反映的灵敏度、对产品规格和质量的标准化要求等方面,是业主制下自主经营的家庭手工业无法比拟的,从而为近代乡村手工业经济区的兴起和发展创造了条件。     

La république universellè des francs-maçons entre «culture de la mobilité» et basculement national (XVIIIe–XIXe siècle)

In 1723, the Charter of the Grand Lodge of England defines the project of the Masonic order: to become «the center of the union and the means of tying a faithful friendship among men who without that would have remained at a perpetual distance». From this aspiration to rebuild Babel, proceed the attempts to chart the Masonic Republic, to set up a network of truly universal correspondence and language — this last building site leading to Esperanto. The order developed throughout the XVIII^th century this universal utopia on the mode of a true citizenship of the Masonic Republic with its passport, its rights and its duties. Then it had to answer the formidable upheavals resulting from 1789 and the awakening of nationalities, while being directed towards a more committed design of the universal Republic of the freemasons, sensitive to the liberal ideals and the emancipation of the nations, with the risk of giving arguments to its detractors, convinced of the masonic involvement in a world-wide conspiracy.     

Institutions and Falsified Culture in the Novel Evening Act by Croatian Writer Pavao Pavličić

`In one area of his prose work, the Croatian writer Pavao Pavli?i? belongs to a group of writers in the 1970s who used a fantastic narrative model and thematized irrational parallel worlds as opposed to a realist model of narration. Pavli?i?’s novel Evening Act (published as Ve?ernji akt in 1981) has a realistic beginning, but it slips into fantastic narration when the main character, a young man called Mihovil, discovers his ability to falsify documents and works of art. At the same time, he is capable of recognizing falsified art works and documents that are accepted as an integral part of social, cultural, and historical memory. When this ability becomes dangerous, Mihovil falsifies his own body to escape from his unbearable reality. This paper will analyse the function of the fantastic model in Pavli?i?’s novel as a postmodern play with traditions of Croatian and world literature and culture. The ludic layer of the novel has a highly symbolic value: it draws attention to the relationship of cultural institutions and society to the authenticity of art works, the role of art, and ways of preserving (or destroying) cultural memory.     

Dogs,jaws, and other stories: Two symbolic objects made of dog mandibles from southeastern Europe

The relationship between people and dogs has its beginnings in the Palaeolithic and extends to contemporary times. This paper explores the role of dogs in Eneolithic communities from the Balkans, with a particular focus on two dog mandibles which were discovered in House No. 14 at Sultana-Malu Ro?u (ca. 4600?–?3950 b.c.) in Romania. The two artifacts belong to different excavation levels. The first mandible was identified in the foundation trench which marks the beginning of the house's lifecycle; the second was found in the abandonment level of the house, marking the end of its lifecycle. Archaeozoological, technological and functional analyses demonstrate the unique character of these prehistoric artifacts, telling the stories of those who used, sacrificed and abandoned them.     

Popul?r oder elit?r? Anmerkungen zum Kulturbegriff in der Geschichtswissenschaft

While the Historische Kulturwissenschaft (new cultural history) is introduced as a new way of writing history the question has to be answered what Kultur (civilization) means or how it should be interpreted. The paper deals primarily with the special German notion of ‘Kultur’. The distinction between ‘intension’ and ‘extension’ is made and contrasted with both the narrow and the wide concept of ‘Kultur’. Writing history as new cultural history is shaped at least by five aspects: space, perspective, language, acting and time (particularly memory) which are discussed in this thesis. The intension of ‘Kultur’ in Historische Kulturwissenschaft leads to popularisation. The sense of the popular approach to history emphasizes modality in the conception and writing of history.     

浙闽木拱廊桥的人居文化特殊意义

依然流传在我国浙南、闽北山区的一种特殊的木构拱桥,以其精巧的结构和优美的造型形成独特的山地人景观。作为具有强烈的原生性(indigenous)的山地建筑化遗产,它所具有的研究价值是多方面的。本通过对木拱桥的地理环境介绍以及历史、民俗的研究,试图将木拱桥作为一种特殊的山地人居化遗产,进行相关的探讨。     

The Crofter and the Iron Works: The Material Culture of Structural Crisis, Identity and Making a Living on the Edge

The iron and steel industry has been of the greatest importance to the Swedish economy since medieval times. During the seventeenth century a large number of new iron works were erected in the Värmland region of western Sweden. The iron works brought an urban and industrial culture into an otherwise rural area. They were also of great importance to the local economies, as a number of people could earn their living, or part of their living, by working at the iron works or in other forms of associated employment. In the late nineteenth century a serious structural crisis hit the Swedish iron industry, causing many iron works to close. However, the actual effects, in the form of unemployment and increased poverty, appear, for hitherto unknown reasons, to have been minimal. In this article the household of a crofter family with close links with an iron works at the time of the structural crisis is investigated. Aspects of the crofter’s material culture, identity and consumption pattern are studied, and it is found that although the household shared in an urban and industrial identity, its economic basis was in the rural tradition of a mixed economy, combining wage employment and land-based elements. The mixed economy stands out as one reason why the structural crisis did not have as dramatic an effect as might have been expected.