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Colonial Discourse and Tradition in John Dryden’s The Indian Emperour

Author(s): Jack Love / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: John Dryden; The Indian Emperor; colonial; imperial; new world; drama; English;

This paper will focus on texts like Dryden’s that nationalized colonization and thus justified it. Nationalistic works on the conversation about the ‘New World’ left out one key group: indigenous Americans. The transposition of European ideas about the Americas is evident in Dryden’s work because of his interest in supporting or justifying the colonial ventures of the western hemisphere. The Indian Emperour itself connects to the European discourse on colonization through the dichotomy Dryden creates between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ world and the nobility of certain indigenous characters like Montezuma. The Indian Emperour most notably connects to later colonial discourse through Dryden’s placement of the English people in the play. While the English are not physically present in Mexico, Dryden refers to his own collective nationality as a necessary replacement or superior successor to the lands of the ‘New World.’ In this paper, I argue that Dryden’s idea of the necessary replacement, or the worthy colonizer, speaks heavily to later colonial themes and myths in North American literature, where various heroic figures act as intermediaries between the European ‘civilized’ world and the western frontier.

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Restor(y)ing Indigenous Sovereignty in Cherie Dimaline’s Empire of Wild

Author(s): Cornelia Vlaicu / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: Métis; rogarou; (neo)colonialism ;sovereignty; story;

A fascinating, multi-layered narrative, Empire of Wild was Indigo’s Best Book of 2019. Love story intersects with the reclamation of Indigenous sovereignty as a Métis woman in search of her lost husband gets in the way of neocolonialist interests. The article looks at how the novel uses the rogarou, a canine-human monster found in French-Canadian and Métis oral traditions, its meanings constructed in different discourses, to restore and ‘re-story’ the Métis in their homeland through the agency of Indigenous womanhood. In discussing the conflict between the main character, Joan, and the man who holds her husband in his power, I endeavor to demonstrate how the novel turns the colonialist discourse of Indigenous savagery on its head, exposes the dynamics of “settler memory” (Kevin Bruyneel), and engages in “re-solution” (Layli Long Soldier) as an act of meaning making from a Métis subject position. Joan’s dual otherness as a Métis (and a) woman reclaims Métis sovereignty through performing it, her (becoming) story—a process of Métis resistance and reemergence.

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A Rupturing of Typecasts through Villoro’s Cynicism and Urrea’s Heroines

Author(s): Kaitlin E. Thomas / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: Villoro; Alberto Urrea; US-Mexican Border; Latina/o Literature; Femininity; Heroism; National Identity;

This article examines two short stories from the compilation Los culpables (The Guilty) (2015), by Juan Villoro and the novel Into the Beautiful North (2009), by Luis Alberto Urrea to demonstrate a reworking of fossilized notions of identity and gender to produce narratives that counter stagnated literary archetypes and promulgate a re-writing of self. An exploration of psychological and emotive aspects of the U.S.-Mexican border as a territorial and ideological space for masculinity, femininity, age, and national-international movement is informed primarily by border and migration studies discourses related to multi-spatiality, the historical instability of tropes, and how such instability is advancing stereotype-challenging narratives. Such a lens is woven through the discussion of each work presented here. Beginning with the short story “Mariachi,” readers will be acquainted with two characters in particular, Julián and Brenda, to focus on themes of identity, loyalty, and gender. Next, the discussion turns towards “Amigos Mexicanos,” where elements of the archetypes of the “ugly American” and U.S. fixations with violence in Mexico are considered against notions of authenticity by examining the characters of Katzenberg and the narrator. Finally, Urrea’s novel Into the Beautiful North illustrates the crafting of a cohort of multi-generational characters that push issues of identity, gender, and belonging into more progressive spheres.

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Prometheus Unhinged—Madness, Myth, Terrorism, and Outcast Identity in Fight Club

Author(s): Jaime Segura San Miguel / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: Myth of Prometheus; Fight Club; process of individuation; outcast; identity; madness;

Identity, in all its simplicity and complexity, can be defined as a continuum of the ego or the sum of the representations of the self. However, when the different parts in the sum wage war to one another in a split personality that stems from the unbearable weariness of the Byung-Chul Han’s achievement-subject, how can one’s identity be defined and realized? This article answers this question by using Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club and its protagonist, and to this end, a post-structural, psychoanalytical analysis is provided which explains how Fight Club can act as a revisitation of the Promethean myth in a comparison with Kafka’s Tired Prometheus, and how Byung-Chul Han’s Burnout Society and Jean Baudrillard’s The Spirit of Terrorism can help explain the context of the mythical struggle between the neglected subject and its creator, and why it occurs thus in a post-industrial society.

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Culture, Disgust, and Eating Disorder: A Study of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

Author(s): Prachi Ratra / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: culture; disgust; eating disorder; anorexia; meat;

Recent considerations on the impact of culture on eating disorders have challenged the purely medical model where eating disorders are seen as clinical diseases. This paper draws from these considerations and focuses on disgust as a cultural phenomenon and its role in eating disorders in twenty-first-century South Korean fiction. Disgust is situated within a culture and works on the principle of avoidance. South Korea is a meat-eating society with its roots in patriarchy and no room for deviance. This paper explores The Vegetarian (2015) by Han Kang, and the main character Yeong-hye’s disgust towards meat-eating as a repudiation of societal norms and its accompanying violence. It situates her eating disorder as an attempt at emancipating herself from the prescriptive roles that society ascribes to her and attaining control over herself; Yeong-hye’s anorexia is associated with the trauma she experiences. Through the application of Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, this paper interrogates the ideas of disgust in The Vegetarian. The paper also contributes to the existing research in the medical realm by underlining the role of culture in diseases and disorders in women.

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Craig Czury's Volume of Prose Poetry, Fifteen Stones, as a Site of Resistance against the Neoliberal Consensus

Author(s): Daniela-Carmen Stoica,Ilir Shyta / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: prose; poetry; language; reference; neoliberalism; consensus;

The present article brings to the attention of European readers and literary criticism the volume of prose poetry Fifteen Stones (2015) of the contemporary North American poet Craig Czury. Even though Craig Czury is the author of more than twenty books, many of them being translated into Albanian, Russian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Spanish, and Italian, there is very little literary criticism in relation to his works, particularly in Europe. Our analysis demonstrates that the controversial nature of prose poetry allows Craig Czury to create his poetical sites of resistance against the contemporary neoliberal consensus. Most of the prose poems included in the volume have the form of monologues, bearing a marked autobiographical character, revealing personal life experiences, sometimes traumatic ones, and carrying us into the vast geographical and cultural spaces the poet has travelled to, but also into surrealist scenarios of his imagination.

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Embodiment of American Virtue, Embodiment of Corporate Interest? – Michael Jordan’s Public Persona and Its Historical Roots

Author(s): Till Neuhaus,Niklas Thomas / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: basketball; NBA; race; Michael Jordan; corporate colonization; history of basketball; North America;

In professional sports physicality is closely connected to an omnipresent capitalist logic. Therefore, professional sports constitute an arena in which bodies are produced, serve as revenue increasing entities, and are ultimately consumed. By taking a closer look at the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) as well as affiliated companies’ narratological marketing efforts, this paper tries to identify dominant narratives. The NBA constitutes a particularly interesting case, as a racial component highlights the (un)conscious decisions made by corporate leaders. This racial division in fans and athletes could not be bridged for a long time and made the league financially unsuccessful. This changed with David Stern’s tenure as commissioner. Theoretically, this paper draws on Stanley Deetz’s (1992) concept of “corporate colonization” which implies that, in the act of making sense of the world, interpretations which primarily consider efficiency and/or revenue aspects are selected over other possibilities. This paper highlights the selected modes of (re-)presentation by looking at one of the sport’s most recognizable icons, Michael Jordan.

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Spiral Coercion: Nazi Power and Family Authority in Charlotte Salomon’s Autobiographical Work Life? Or Theatre?

Author(s): Eleftheria Karagianni / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: Charlotte Salomon; Life or Theatre; autobiography; Nazism; power; authority;

Life? or Theatre? is a visual-theatrical, textual, and auto-biographical play of Charlotte Salomon, a Jewish talented artist, executed at a very young age in the Auschwitz concentration camp. In this paper, I consider Salomon’s work a document of life, and a testimony of her personal intra-familial, and personal experience of “the before—Auschwitz” (Jenn-Gastal 228) depicting, among others, historical and socio-political facts articulated and expressed through narrative and painting. Since in Sociology life stories or autobiographical narratives constitute a valuable tool, I will employ Salomon’s drawings, captions and texts as a “synergetic fusing of social sciences and the arts” (Bagley 34), in order to shed ample light on her reconstructed lived experience. This research aims at examining Salomon's autobiographical work from a sociological and philosophical perspective, referring to the views of great theorists, such as Hannah Arendt, Zygmunt Bauman, and the founders of the Frankfurt School, who tried to explain the origins of totalitarianism, power relations and the causes of the Holocaust.

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From Margaret Noble to Sister Nivedita: Mapping a Colonial Woman’s Journey to India in Search of a ‘Home’

Author(s): Ritushree Sengupta,Kumar Sankar Bhattacharya,Devika Sangwan / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: Nationalism; Travel; Swami Vivekananda; Sister Nivedita; Hindu Theology;

While stories of travels from Britain to India during the colonial times were replete with stereotypes, the journey of an Irish Lady, Margaret Noble (1867–1911) and her subsequent transformation into Sister Nivedita (the one dedicated to the cause) was unique in many senses. Attracted by her Guru (Spiritual Master) she came to Calcutta, India on her spiritual quest in 1898, where she immersed herself in the local culture, learned the language, and significantly contributed to women’s progress. Her involvement with local intelligentsia and nationalism highlighted the Indian values, talents and erudition to the outside world. Her journey showcased her spirit that could transcend the rigid European orthodoxy for White women in a colonized land and placed her as one of the leading architects of modern India. Earlier studies have not recognised Nivedita as a social reformer. Most importantly, works on her seldom refer to her struggle and subsequent triumph over limitations imposed on her in terms of racial othering, geographical positionality and gendered subjectivity. This paper addresses her struggle and celebrates her successful navigation in transcending the limitations and restrictions of both her Irish culture and the Indian culture and highlights her significant contributions towards human race at large.

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History as Story, History as My (Family’s) Story: Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy (2020) – Book Review

Author(s): Sorina Georgescu / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2022

Keywords: review; Ku-Klux-Klan; Edward Ball; white supremacy; American slavery;

Review of: History as Story, History as My (Family’s) Story: Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy (2020) – Book Review

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The American Debate Over Totalitarianism: Terror

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The American Debate Over Totalitarianism: Terror

Author(s): Lavinia Stan / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/1995

Keywords: totalitarianism; America; debate; political systems; terror;

Terror was identified by many Western authors as an essential feature of totalitarian systems, communist or fascist. Ever since 1970s, however, a new interpretation suggested that belief rather than terror motivated the Soviet population even during the years of the so-called "Great Purge" (1935-1939). In an article published in 1986. based on new memoirs literature and the Smolensk Archives, Robert Thurston challenged the conventional view prevalent among sovietologists, arguing that the "Great Purge" was not a purge; it was not even great. Moreover, since not even the "Great Purge" was a total terror, totalitarianism as a political concept is misleading and does not capture the essence of the Soviet-type system and, more generally, of the communist systems. This article presents the Thurston - Conquest debate (that is the "revisionist" - "totalitarian" debate), and the way in which "revisionists" have challenged terror as the essence of totalitarianism. It is further suggested that any analysis of the role of terror in a totalitarian system should take into account Hannah Arendt’s description of the "banality of evil".

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The American Debate over the Essence of Totalitarianism

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The American Debate over the Essence of Totalitarianism

Author(s): Lavinia Stan / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/1994

Keywords: American debate; political systems; totalitarianism;

Totalitarianism as a political term has been used in various contexts. A survey of the American literature reveals that some authors have spoken of totalitarian regimes, totalitarian parties, or simply totalitarian ideas. Communist regimes, Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, Plato’s republic, the United States in the 1840's, among others, have been cited as examples of totalitarian policies in spite of the obvious difference between them. Relative to communist regimes, the totalitarian framework was based on three premises - that the similitude between various regimes characterized in this way are greater than the differences between them: that totalitarianism is qualitatively different from previous authoritarian rulings: that totalitarianism and democracy are logically antithetical. The classical definition, proposed by C. J. Friedrich, seemed to point right to the essence of totalitarian regimes. However, as the communist regimes showed a gradual internal pluralization, and variations within the communist camp intensified, commentators felt that the concept became less useful. Various alternative theories gained the upper hand since the 1970’s. However, today, new information previously unavailable can shed a new light on the debate over the essence of communism.

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United together against hybrid threats: EU-NATO-Eastern Partnership countries (2014-2021)

Author(s): Vira Ratsiborynska / Language(s): English / Issue: 18/2022

Keywords: Resilience; hybrid threats; EU; NATO; Eastern Partnership countries; Ukraine; Georgia; Moldova;

The EU, NATO and the Eastern Partnership countries are facing a range of security challenges and risks. Hybrid threats are a permanent feature of today’s security environment and a part of the current EU, NATO, and the Eastern Partnership countries security landscape. In a period of rapid changes in the security environment and external pressures, it is important to intensify cooperation between the EU, NATO, and the Eastern Partnership countries and to make further progress on common collaborative approaches against hybrid threats. The paper focuses on different areas of the EU-NATO cooperation against hybrid threats and argues that shared resilience against shared threats can lead to a better synchronization of efforts in countering hybrid threats. A case study on the Eastern Partnership countries is introduced in this research and is examined in the paper.

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Could digital diplomacy help combating disinformation? The impact of Romanian’s Digital diplomacy in the Eastern Partnership countries

Author(s): Radu Carp,Mihaela Daciana Natea,LUCIAN SĂCĂLEAN / Language(s): English / Issue: 18/2022

Keywords: e-diplomacy; digitalization; Eastern Partnership; European Union; OSCE;

Living in the “digital era” to ask ourselves how we communicate is a matter of vital importance for the public dimension, with the acknowledgement that most questions are born in relation to communication methods, the transmission mechanisms of the desired message and the impact that communication strategies have on message recipients, especially in the political-diplomatic environment. If in the private sector the freedom of expression using modern communication means is considerable, in the public institutions case things are drastically different, as they are subjected to various constraints, either political and legislative in nature or related to the peculiarities of their activity. In matters of diplomacy the entire spectrum of sending a message is even more complex, due to the international implications that any act of communication may generate. The study analyses the digital communication policy of the Romanian embassies in the area of the EU Eastern Partnership, respectively in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine - OSCE Member states as well. Our analysis had as objective a double dimension, on the one hand the evaluation of the activities promoted on the internet page and in the social media by Romanian embassies in these states and on the other hand the impact of the messages on young people. As a research method for the second part, we have used the interview applied to 80 respondents, in order to estimate the impact and expectations of young people regarding the public communication policy of the Romanian embassies in three countries - Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus. Starting from this experience we argue that OSCE needs to adapt to the new international realities generated by disinformation and to adopt a more intensive and individual driven communication strategy in order to have a greater impact in its mission.

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EU Competition policy and the European integration of the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe that acceded to the European Union

Author(s): Aliona Balan / Language(s): English / Issue: 18/2022

Keywords: EU competition policy; countries of Central and Eastern Europe; European integration; accession preparation strategy; internal market; enlargement;

The historical development of the EU competition policy has been instrumental for the structure of the Member States’ competition regimes, as well as for the legislative framework in the field of competition of a large number of countries beyond EU borders. This paper analysis how the provisions of the EU’s competition policy have been gradually adopted into national competition systems, either by voluntary convergence, or by preconditioning the access to the internal market of the Central and Eastern European countries pursuing EU accession to the alignment and harmonisation of the national legislation on competition to the EU competition provisions.

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Education 4.0 and the need for Competitive Intelligence in University management

Author(s): SERGIU-VIOREL BORŞA / Language(s): English / Issue: 18/2022

Keywords: Globalization; Industry 4.0; skills; Education 4.0; Competition; Competitive intelligence;

Unprecedented challenges determined by globalization and the booming development brought by Industrial Revolution 4.0 determine changes that impose a redrafting of skills and abilities requirements necessary on the job market. “Education 4.0” will have the role to provide a new set of such capabilities, but also train adequate attitudes in a super technological and interconnected environment in which new technologies focus on innovation, on identifying and promoting talents, on the capacity to understand and interconnect information from various fields in order to find innovative solutions, on the capacity to adapt to different cultural environments or to work remotely in virtual teams, and the higher education is the most important supplier of highly qualified personnel who is fit to integrate quickly in the Industrial Revolution. In order to do this, we need to reset the academic and administrative management of the educational institutions. They have to understand that their role in the context created by Industry 4.0 is similar to that of a “company with innovative technology” regardless of the area it forms and develops skills. A competitive intelligence type of approach in education and university management would respond to the challenges and would offer instruments for collecting, processing and capitalization of useful information in their ascent in the top of international elite universities but, most importantly, would connect and function in tandem with the new technological generation and society.

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ROMANIAN DIPLOMACY AND EUROPEAN GEOPOLITICS

Author(s): Nicoleta Vasilcovschi / Language(s): English / Issue: 18/2022

Keywords: Maria Costea; Diplomacy; European Geopolitics; Review;

Review of; Maria Costea, (ed.), Romanian Diplomacy and European Geopolitics, Iasi: Institutul European, 2019. 252 pp. ISBN 978-606-24-0238-9.

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Use of Information Technologies in Higher Education From The Aspect of Management

Author(s): Dobrica Vesić,Duško Laković,Slavimir Lj. Vesić / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: information technologies; higher education; management; learning; knowledge

The development of modern information-communication technologies has enabled the development of electronic knowledge distribution channels that expand the effective level of general and specialist education. This trend is also present in higher education because higher education institutions and institutes increasingly rely on the use of modern information-communication technologies in their operations. The effects of the use of personal computers, the Internet and global social networks are multiple in the higher education system as well. In the process of acquiring new knowledge, developing creativity, as well as ensuring greater activity in the process of education, new learning technologies, with the use of multimedia systems, created the prerequisites for the engagement of all individual and collective resources. The most important source of the state’s competitive advantage is the ability to educate and retain highly educated personnel in the field of information technologies. From that aspect, the paper discusses information technologies as a scientific discipline and general conditions for education in the field of information technologies. The impact of technical and pedagogical changes on education in this area is analyzed with particular attention. It is known that information technologies are suitable for vocational education, and the modern environment sets specific requirements regarding the applicability of knowledge acquired in higher education institutions. The dynamic and turbulent market emphasizes the applicability of knowledge as a key requirement in the educational process. These short researches propose new educational modules that should structure teaching in the field of information technologies in accordance with the global demand in this sector. Every society strives for a more efficient and economical system of education, and therefore the issue of the use of new information technologies in education comes down to the problem of creating a theoretically ideal model of the use of these technologies at all levels of education and work.

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Internet in The Function of Promotion of Bestiality: Profiling Zoophiles

Author(s): Željko Bjelajac,Boro Merdović,Aleksandar Filipović / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: Internet; paraphilia; bestiality; zoophilia; profiling

The Internet is an inseparable part of contemporary man’s everyday life. The catalog of positive sides of this global information system, which encourage the development of creativity, is inexhaustible. Simultaneously, many negative aspects of the Internet in the context of breach of security, exposure to inappropriate content and promotion of bestiality exist. Therefore, in this paper we pay special attention to zoophilia, a specific disorder from the domain of paraphilia, which includes a sexual preference for animals with ethical and harmful consequences for health. According to the available data from the digital space, it is noted that this disorder affects a significant number of individuals. It is an very complex and sensitive disorder, which requires a multidisciplinary approach, including a psychopathological approach that would explore the symptoms, nature and factors (hereditary, organic and social) of pathological conditions and processes in these individuals. With tendency that this scientific paper represents an adequate reaction to make this disorder more visible, as part of preventive programs before the late manifestation, we applied methods: quantitative and qualitative content analysis, comparative analysis (reaction to zoophilia) and descriptive and analytical statistics. The goal is to recognize zoophilia as a disease and bestiality, that is, inhuman behavior, which requires an effective response from the social community.

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The School of Athens, the Philosophical Artwork that Conveys All Human Knowledge

Author(s): Bledar Kurti,Arburim Iseni / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: Athens; Raphael; Plato; Aristotle; Cultural Cognition

The School of Athens, the fresco by Raphael, is an artwork in which the whole world has seen for five centuries, not only the aesthetic, emotional and spiritual aspect of art, but also the philosophical and intellectual one. In this fresco Raphael painted the human mind. This work is a holistic variation of cultural anthropology and cultural cognitive science. It is a university in which all human knowledge is summoned. Raphael combined paganism and humanism within the Vatican premises. Making this fresco a significant work, reflecting and conveying the core cultural values and universal ideals, offering an excellent opportunity for any viewer to engage in a multicultural cognitive act and process. This paper presents how this multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary work serves as an ideal example for today’s works and philosophy to connect all creative and philosophical disciplines into one, inspiring today’s thought and the new works of creative arts to contain the human knowledge of the ages, uniting the past and future, as a meeting point of history, reason, discovery and human aspirations. It will present how this complex artwork includes knowledge, philosophy, art, morals, customs, etc, acquired by any member of society to understand human cultural cognition.

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