1989: THE CHRONOPOLITICS OF REVOLUTION

A failed effort at “reform from above” or a dramatic reassertion of “people power”? Almost thirty-five years on, studies of the Revolutions of 1989 continue to be framed by these two polarities. However, this historiographical focus has meant that scholars have often overlooked the actual content and character of protest itself. This article argues that one way of reinjecting agency and ideas back into our historical understanding of 1989 is through examining the chronopolitics of revolution: that is to say, by addressing how the control and interpretation of time became a political battlefield, a site of contention and negotiation, between Communist regimes, on the one hand, and political activists and society, on the other. Investigating events in the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia, the article contains two central claims: first, that an interrogation of the concept of “chronopolitics” can provide a new angle by which to grasp the revolutionary character of “1989” and the democratic transformations that resulted and, second, by way of inversion, that a study of the temporal experiences across 1989 and the early 1990s can in turn shed light on the analytical value of “chronopolitics” more generally.     

Writing the History of Irish Women

Joanna Bourke, Husbandry to Housewifery: Women, Economic Change, and Housework in Ireland 1890-1914 Margaret Ward (ed.) In Their Own Voice: Women and Irish Nationalism Mary O'Dowd and Sabine Wichert (eds) Chattel, Servant or Citizen: Women's Status in Church, State and Society Joan Hoff and Moureen Coulter (eds) Irish Women's Voices Past and Present     

Chardin et sonPhilosophe

Did “the old character, so intelligent, so crazy”, evoked by Marcel Proust through Chardin’s self-portraits, depict himself in the projective mask of the wise man, in one of his most famous paintings, thePhilosopher of the Louvre? As the master of the still life wanted to rise in the hierarchy of the Academic ranks, he probably tried, in this early work, to make up for “this lack of training” in “the humanities”, through the representation of a character in keeping with current tastes, of a modern philosopher. A Philosopher, A Chemist in his laboratory, A Glass-Blower, or A Philosopher busy reading: is the painting of the Louvre (1734) an emblem? Our hypothesis, that this painting represents a chemist philosopher, not a quack or an alchemist, is constructed by comparing the painting with the lampoon entitledThe Philosopher, circulated, according to Voltaire, in the 1730s.     

Micro-imagerie de matériaux anciens complexes (I)

This article aims at presenting the first results of a transdisciplinary research programme in heritage sciences. Based on the growing use and on the potentialities of micro- and nano-characterization synchrotron-based methods to study ancient materials (archaeology, palaeontology, cultural heritage, past environments), this contribution will identify and test conceptual and methodological elements of convergence between physicochemical and historical sciences.     

ENTANGLED MEMORY: TOWARD A THIRD WAVE IN MEMORY STUDIES

This essay takes up the call for a “third phase” in memory studies and makes theoretical and methodological suggestions for its further development. Starting from an understanding of memory that centers on memory's temporality, its relation to language, and its quality as a social action, the essay puts forward the concept of “entangled memory.” On a theoretical level, it brings to the fore the entangledness of acts of remembering. In a synchronic perspective, memory's entangledness is presented as twofold. Every act of remembering inscribes an individual in multiple social frames. This polyphony entails the simultaneous existence of concurrent interpretations of the past. In a diachronic perspective, memory is entangled in the dynamic relation between single acts of remembering and changing mnemonic patterns. Memory scholars therefore uncover boundless cross‐referential configurations. Wishing to enhance the dialogue between the theoretical and the empirical parts of memory studies, we propose four devices that serve as a heuristic in the study of memory's entanglement: chronology against time, conflict, generations, and self‐reflexivity. Current debates on European memory permit us to explore the possible benefits that the concept of entangled memory carries for memory studies.     

Brazil as an intermediate state and regional power: action, choice and responsibilities

Since the early years of the twentieth century, Brazil's major foreign policy aspiration has been to achieve international recognition based upon the belief that it should assume its 'natural' role as a 'big country' in world affairs. Although the bases for an autonomous foreign policy have become more restricted in the post-Cold War period, Brazil still seeks to preserve an independent voice within the international community and a certain level of independent capacity to determine its actions. In addition, the country has demonstrated a clear intention of wanting to expand the roles that it plays and the responsibilities that it assumes in regional politics, in Third World agendas and in multilateral institutions. As democracy deepens its roots within the country, Brazil has attempted to link an increasingly activist stance in world affairs with political support at home based upon a more active partisan involvement in foreign policy. In this context, the present government's fight against poverty and unequal income distribution at home and its assertive and activist foreign policy can be viewed as two sides of the same coin. In this article the authors provide an overview of the core features of Brazilian foreign policy, focusing upon four aspects: (i) the instrumental nature of Brazilian foreign policy and its close relationship with the country's economic and development objectives; (ii) the commitment of Brazil to multilateralism; (iii) the growing importance for Brazil of regional politics and security; and (iv) the recent evolution of Brazil's relations with the United States. The conclusion reviews the main challenges facing Brazil and the difficulty of matching increased ambition with concrete results.     

Le Travail Intellectuel au Moyen Âge

Sans résumé étienne Anheim est ma?tre de conférences en histoire médiévale à l’Université de Versailles/Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Ses recherches portent sur les formes de la culture savante (peinture, musique, littérature) à la fin du Moyen ?ge, et sur leurs relations avec les cours. Il a récemment publié ?La Chambre du Cerf. Image, savoir et nature à Avignon au milieu du xiv ^e siècle ? (Micrologus, vol. XVI, 2008, p. 57–124). Sylvain Piron est ma?tre de conférences à l’école des hautes études en sciences sociales. Ses recherches portent sur différents aspects de l’histoire intellectuelle du Moyen ?ge central, de la pensée économique des scolastiques à l’ecclésiologie des franciscains spirituels. Il vient de publier ?Le poète et le théologien: une rencontre dans le studium de Santa Croce ?, dans Jo?l Biard et Fosca Mariani Ziani, éd, Ut philosophia poesis. Questions philosophiques dans l’écriture de Dante, Pétrarque, Bocacce (Paris, Vrin, 2008, p. 73–112).