M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The present work tells the story of the rise and fall of a pan-Balkan discourse from the mid-1920s to the eve of the Second World War through an examination of the intellectual output of southeast European diplomat-littérateurs—a range of intellectuals and literati who functioned as conduits between the realms of culture and politics—during the years of dislocation and turmoil following the Great War. It traces the emergence of transnational networks that coalesced around interwar pan-Balkanism, or the wide-ranging and diffuse movement that aimed to forge a union out of Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece and Turkey, as well as to build substantive intellectual and cultural links among these states. Beginning with the Locarno treaties and the attendant optimism for a united Europe, the Universal Peace Congress of 1929 in Athens, followed by an evaluation of the consecutive Balkan conferences of the early 1930s alongside the work of its varied proponents, this dissertation illustrates how the stigmatized regional moniker, “the Balkans,” was, in fact, re-inscribed and endowed with a new, positively-inflected meaning in the course of efforts to bring about a rapprochement. Moving beyond the scope of earlier scholarship that pitted the Balkans against the West, instead this work demonstrates the interconnectedness of Balkan and European intellectual networks, as well as local actors’ overwhelming subscription to the tenets of cultural internationalism. This work examines Greek, Yugoslav and Albanian foreign policy, geopolitical agendas, popular press as well as literature in order to demonstrate that alternatives to the nation-state as a method of state-building and intellectual organization were, in fact, under consideration. Ultimately, this dissertation depicts intellectual life in the Balkans as it unfolds over the course of the interwar decades and explains why the Balkan idea reemerged during this critical interlude.

No description available.

This study is a comparison of the development of the theories of reification and hegemony in the writings and political activities of Georg Lukacs and Antonio Gramsci during the years from 1918 to 1938. In demonstrating that reification and hegemony were formulated in response to the unsuccessful revolutionary movements in Hungary and Italy of 1919-1920, it becomes evident that the respective theories of Lukacs and Gramsci were meant to constitute critiques of bourgeois cultural domination. Thus, their problematic extends to analyses of more specific issues, such as the role of positivist science as the prevailing "paradigm of rationality" and the instrumental function of "traditional" and "organic intellectuals." The solutions that both theorists sought in order to overcome reification and hegemony are embedded in their neo-Hegelian interpretations of Marxism, where historical materialism is defined as a methodology characterised by its utilisation of the conceptual tools of "dialectic," "totality," and "absolute historicism." However, Lukacs was forced by historical circumstances to retreat into the realm of aesthetics, although he continued the critique of reification by way of his theory of critical realism. Simultaneously, Gramsci began to elaborate more practical solutions to cultural domination through his theory of the "war of position," catharsis, and counter-hegemony.

No description available.

Revised thesis (doctoral)--University of Oxford, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-315) and index.

The main purpose of this thesis is to gain insight to, and widened knowledge about, the contemporary nationalistic movement in Sweden, represented by the Sweden Democrats, and its’ relation to cultural heritage. The party has made cultural heritage the main focal of their culture politic, but the questions are what cultural heritage is to them, what content they read in to the concept, how they value heritage, what sort of heritage policies they want to pursue, and why. And also what sort of sources and expertise that are invoked by the party. The source material, consisting of transcripts from parliamentary debates, motions, and policy documents from the party’s web page, is processed through a discourse analytic method. An important theoretical starting point is that to define a term is to define the thing itself, and that this is an expression of power, especially when it comes to a parliamentary party. The second purpose is to problematize and discuss the concept of heritage on a meta level by comparing the results from the empirical study with earlier research that explores the hegemonic heritage discourse. The main findings are that the Sweden Democrats, like many of their peers around Europe, want to use cultural heritage to create unity and a common national identity – a mono culture to replace the multi cultural paradigm they mean is prevailing in the country (and ruining it). The party has an essentialist, even positivistic, view on the content of heritage, but they never really define it thoroughly. The study also shows that most of the party’s thoughts on heritage are in line with the hegemonic heritage discourse. Some have argued that the Sweden Democrats are abusing ”the heritage”, but I would rather say that they are using it, in a way that corresponds well with the concept “cultural heritage” as it has been defined by all those involved with it (i.e. journalists, writers, scholars, policy makers, museal personnel, and the public through public debate in the press). The example of this Swedish nationalistic party, shows what the cultural heritage concept of today can be when driven to its peak. / Uppsatsens första syfte är att nå ökade insikter i modern svensk nationalism (representerad av Sverigedemokraterna) och dess relation till, och syn på, kulturarvsbegreppet. Partiet har gjort kulturarv till sin främsta kulturpolitiska fråga, men frågan är vad kulturarv är för partiet, vilket innehåll de tillskriver det, vilken kulturarvspolitik de säger sig vilja bedriva, hur de värderar kulturarv, och motiverar sina åsikter och förslag. Detta skall utredas genom en diskursanalys av Sverigedemokratiska motioner, riksdagsdebattinlägg, och texter från partiets webbsida. En teoretisk utgångspunkt som är mycket viktig för motiverandet av uppsatsens relevans är att kontroll över kulturarvsbegreppet är kontroll över tinget i sig, och att detta är ett maktuttryck, i synnerhet när det är ett riksdagsparti som söker kontroll över begreppet. Uppsatsens andra syfte är att problematisera och diskutera kulturarvsbegreppet på en metanivå, genom att jämföra resultaten från den empiriska studien med tidigare forskning om den hegemoniska kulturarvsdiskursen. De huvudsakliga fynden är att Sverigedemokraterna, likt många nationalistiska rörelser ute i Europa, vill använda kulturarv för att skapa gemenskap och en gemensam nationell identitet – en monokultur som kan ersätta det multikulturella paradigm de menar är rådande i landet idag. Partiet har en essentialistisk, till och med positivistisk, syn på kulturarv, men definierar det trots det aldrig på djupet. Studien visar att partiets tankar om kulturarvet ofta går i linje med den hegemoniska kulturarvsdiskursen. Somliga har hävdat att Sverigedemokraterna missbrukar ”kulturarvet”, men jag vill snarare säga att de brukar det på ett sätt som korresponderar med kulturarvsbegreppet med stort K, såsom det kommit att tolkas efter år av användande av journalister, författare, akademiker, politiker, museipersonal, och genom publik debatt i pressen. Exemplet Sverigedemokraterna visar vad kulturarvsbegreppet av idag kan vara när det dras till sin spets.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1994.

M.A. / The purpose of this study is to analyse the nature of the relationship between politics and art in South Africa during the period 1960 to 1996. The discussion is limited to the performing arts, which includes music, theatre, musicals and dance. The relationship between art and politics in South Africa manifested in two ways. Firstly, art was used to convey a specific political message and secondly, it served as an external political instrument with which the international community forced South Africa to put an end to apartheid. The latter was achieved by enforcing sanctions which included the cultural boycott. This study states clearly that art cannot be separated from society and constitutes that art is an important element sociologically speaking. It can thus be influenced by society and it can influence society in many ways. The artist, as a member of society, produce his/her art in accordance to his/her experience of a certain society. The artwork is therefore an "image" of society, because it reflects the artists' perspective of society. There is a relationship between art and politics in South Africa, because both the white and the black South Africans used art to create their own identity. Through art they could form a solidarity, and in the long run they could either sustain or gain political power. The whites wanted to sustain their power and therefore used the arts and art structures as a vehicle to maintain their Western(white) values. The blacks wanted to gain political power and, through the black consciousness movement and their anti-apartheid campaigns, they strove to gain political power. Art was therefore not only used by the blacks as a political weapon against the white apartheid regime, but also by the international community as a means to punish South Africa for the violation of human rights.

Orientador: Áureo Busetto / Banca: Adalberto de Paula Paranhos / Banca: Carlos Alberto Sampaio Barbosa / Banca: José Adriano Fenerick / Banca: Milton Carlos Costa / Resumo: Esta tese de doutoramento trata e reflete histórico-comparativamente sobre o significado de se produzir rock no Brasil e em Portugal entre 1970 e 1985, bem como sobre o papel desempenhado pelo gênero e seus produtos no interior do debate e embate cultural-político, então perpassados por dicotomias como nacional/estrangeiro e alienado/politizado. Quadro histórico, cuja compreensão e possíveis explicações plausíveis nos possibilitam conhecer, compreender e interpretar algumas canções roqueiras investidas de críticas à vida social e política tanto brasileira quanto portuguesa, ambas marcadas, à época, por ditaduras e processos de redemocratização. Assim, buscamos conhecer e compreender historicamente como o rock, de maneira geral, foi visto e definido tanto por roqueiros quanto por diversos agentes do campo cultural e da mídia. De igual modo, cuidamos das visões e apreciações que roqueiros, agentes culturais e midiáticos lançaram sobre o rock, dentro de uma lógica da "marginalidade" e à luz de estereótipos relativos à rebeldia juvenil e violência - fosse esta advinda do universo roqueiro, fosse impingida a ele por agentes e instituições sociais e políticas diversas. E enfocamos, de um lado, como no Brasil e em Portugal o rock e seus agentes se posicionaram no debate cultural-político que, entre outras questões, se ocupou com tentativas de definição do gênero como nacional ou estrangeiro, e, de outro, as maneiras com que roqueiros brasileiros e lusitanos e suas canções integraram embates que procuravam identificar o rock como alienado ou politizado; sempre sem perder de vista as ações de diversos agentes culturais e da mídia relativas a tais quadrantes. Tal caminho nos permite defender a tese de que o rock produzido em língua portuguesa, no Brasil e em Portugal, desde os anos 1950 passava por um processo de nacionalização que culminaria, a partir da década... / Abstract: This doctoral thesis historical-comparatively deals with and reflects about the significance of producing rock in Brazil and Portugal between 1970 and 1985, and the role played by the genre and its products into the cultural-political debate and confrontation, intermingled then by dichotomies such as national/foreign and alienated/politicized. The understanding and the possible plausible explanations of this historical framework allow us to know, understand and interpret some rock songs containing criticism of Brazilian as well as Portuguese social and political life, both marked at the time by dictatorships and democratization processes. Thus, this work seeks to know and understand how rock, in general, has historically been seen and defined by both rockers and different agents of the cultural field and the media. Also, it covers rockers and cultural and media agents' views and assessments on rock within a logic of "marginality" and in the light of stereotypes concerning the youth rebellion and violence - whether arising from the rocker universe or foisted to it by agents and social institutions and different policies. And it focus, on the one hand, how in Brazil and in Portugal rock and its agents have been positioned in the cultural-political debate that, among other issues, has attempted to define rock as domestic or foreign, and on the other, the ways in which Brazilian and Lusitanian rockers and songs integrated confrontations that sought to identify the rock as alienated or politicized; always bearing in mind the actions of various cultural agents and the media relating to such segments. Such path makes it possible to argue that the rock produced in Portuguese language in Brazil and in Portugal since the 1950s went through a process of nationalization that would culminate, from the 1970s and, with special emphasis in the first half of the 1980s, the so-called national rock, which... / Doutor