When one realizes how little the harp of the 1700's had advanced from its Biblical predecessors, its neglect by such masters as Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven does not seem remarkable. Why should a serious composer waste his time in writing for an instrument with no facilities for modulating, an instrument the weak tones of which would be lost in an orchestra?

Diploma thesis "The role of regional political parties within the Spanish political scene in the period of 1993-2010" presents an analysis of the role of Spanish regional political parties, which play within the national political scene since 1993. The preliminary chapter of this thesis provides a brief description of the contemporary Spanish political system, the regional organization of Spain and the Spanish electoral system, which has considerable influence especially on the party system. I consider this general introduction relevant and important for a better understanding of the whole issue. The next section is devoted to the Spanish party system, its development, the typology and the main national political parties. Here I come to the conclusion that due to the specific configuration of the electoral system in Spain happens relatively complicated interpenetration of the national party system with the regional party systems. The final and the most important chapter deals with the regional political parties, which after 1993 came to the Spanish parliament, and especially about those that have influence on the government formation and the government policy. At the beginning of this chapter I define the regional political party, the regionalist and the nationalist political party and I try to...

This dissertation intervenes in the fields of South Asian Masculinity Studies, Affect Studies, Critical Disability Studies, Feminist Cultural Studies, and Trauma as well as Memory Studies. The focus of this project is on the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, a nine-month long war between East Pakistan and West Pakistan, which started on 26 March 1971 and ended on 16 December 1971 with Bangladesh, former East Pakistan, emerging as an independent nation. I concentrate on East Pakistani/Bangladeshi muktijoddhas (freedom fighters) who fought in the war, and birangonas (survivors of sexual violence) who were abducted by military officials and their collaborators. Drawing on political speeches, parliamentary debates, press statements, and governmental news reports, I examine how these sources create a narrative of the manly muktijoddha who demonstrates his masculinity through exhibiting courage and disavowing his pain. I further analyze memoirs by freedom fighters who complicate this image of the courageous muktijoddha through recollecting moments of pain and fear during combat. Significant to my analysis are also survivor testimonies of gender, physical, and sexual violence of wartime women in East Pakistan/Bangladesh, which oppose a more singular nationalist rhetoric of the 1971 war that celebrates the male muktijoddha while marginalizing women’s experiences. I delve into how birangona testimonies narrate the women’s trauma of sexual violence and of witnessing their daughters’ abuse by wartime soldiers. In analyzing women’s stories, I highlight the importance of listening to the voices of birangona-mas (survivors who are also mothers), and thereby question the nationalist mythologizing of the muktijoddha’s mother who sends her son to war. In exploring the muktijoddha, the muktijoddha’s mother, and the birangona/birangona-ma, I argue that there are multiple alternative readings of the war that are suppressed by nationalist discourse, which warrant recognition within Liberation War and South Asian history. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / My dissertation focuses on the Bangladesh Liberation War that took place between East Pakistan and West Pakistan from 26 March 1971 till 16 December 1971. This war led to the independence of Bangladesh, former East Pakistan. During the war, Bangladeshi governmental documents and nationalist speeches portrayed the East Pakistani/Bangladeshi freedom fighter or muktijoddha as an ideal masculine figure who fought against West Pakistani soldiers with courage. I analyze memoirs by freedom fighters who show how they both conform to, and disrupt the nationalist portrayal of the courageous muktijoddha. I also examine personal recollections of birangonas (women survivors of sexual violence) who speak of their trauma, reveal narratives of their daughter’s abuse by soldiers and their collaborators, and provide a reading of the wartime woman that challenges the nation’s vested interest in the ideal male muktijoddha. Overall, my project encourages people to rethink the Liberation War from the perspectives of wartime men and women survivors who have witnessed violence and mutilation firsthand.

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Author and activist Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904) was a member of the Brook Farm Transcendental community from 1842 until it folded in 1847. Although critics have long recognized that Brook Farm played a role in Diaz's intellectual preparation, they have not attempted to demonstrate its influence through a study of her writings. In this study I will examine in detail two of Diaz's novels and two long essays, with passing references to other works, that reveal how the utopian socialism practiced at Brook Farm influenced Diaz as a writer and reformer. In all her writings Diaz emphasized the importance of education for women so that they may successfully fulfill their roles as wives, mothers, and their children's first teachers. Her philosophy is reflected in the reform initiatives she supported: the Women's Educational and Industrial Union and the Nationalist Party.

There has been a rise in Right-wing extremism (RWE) mobilizing within what is known as the setter-colonial state of Canada, with some groups espousing values and narratives grounded in White nationalist ideology which have led to instances of violence and harm against community members. These incidents of harm and violence occur in the context of the Canadian state's claims to inclusive multiculturalism, civility and benevolence. While there are many looking into the presence of RWE groups to document their existence, mobilizing patterns and tactics, very little analysis exists that offers a deep analysis into these groups and situates their political ideology within the broader context of the Canadian state’s governance logics. Therefore, to push the discussion on this topic further, this project looks at the specific case of the Canadian Nationalist Front's (CNF), a White nationalist group in Canada, and unpacks the discourse shared on their blog. Through dissecting the CNF's blogpost with a theoretical framework of analysis that moves beyond understanding this group as merely a fringe group which holds fundamentally different values than the Canadian state, I make links to the existing literature that demonstrates the parallels between the two. I argue that the racialized governance logics of White nationalist groups, like the CNF, are also shared in the settler-colonial logics of the Canadian state's border governance strategies. Further, I highlight the ways in which groups like the CNF ground their movements in the superiority of Whiteness, while using the state's claims of inclusivity and multiculturalism to justify their entitlement to hold these exclusionary ideologies while presenting themselves as victims of those that they "Other". Finally, I contextualize their discourse within the context of neoliberalism, which has intensified the harms of racial capitalism in a way that has also impacted the White working class and allowed groups like the CNF to use economic grievances to mobilize their movements.

The era between the close of the nineteenth century and the onset of the First World War witnessed a marked increase in radical agitation among Indian and Irish nationalists. The most outspoken political leaders of the day founded a series of widely circulated newspapers in India and Ireland, placing these editors in the enviable position of both reporting and creating the news. Nationalist journalists were in the vanguard of those pressing vocally for an independent India and Ireland, and together constituted an increasingly problematic contingent for the British Empire. The advanced-nationalist press in Ireland and the nationalist press in India took the lead in facilitating the exchange of provocative ideas—raising awareness of perceived imperial injustices, offering strategic advice, and cementing international solidarity. Irish and Indian press coverage of Britain’s imperial wars constituted one of the premier weapons in the nationalists’ arsenal, permitting them to build support for their ideology and forward their agenda in a manner both rapid and definitive. Directing their readers’ attention to conflicts overseas proved instructive in how the Empire dealt with those who resisted its policies, and also showcased how it conducted its affairs with its allies. As such, critical press coverage of the Boxer Rebellion, Boer War, Russo-Japanese War, and World War I bred disaffection for the Empire, while attempts by the Empire to suppress the critiques further alienated the public. This dissertation offers the first comparative analysis of the major nationalist press organs in India and Ireland, using the prism of war to illustrate the increasingly persuasive role of the press in promoting resistance to the Empire. It focuses on how the leading Indian and Irish editors not only fostered a nationalist agenda within their own countries, but also worked in concert to construct a global anti-imperialist platform. By highlighting the anti-imperial rhetoric of the nationalist press in India and Ireland and illuminating their strategies for attaining self-government, this study deepens understanding of the seeds of nationalism, making a contribution to comparative imperial scholarship, and demonstrating the power of the media to alter imperial dynamics and effect political change.

近代以來，中國農業現代化以農藥利用、肥料推廣、品種改良及機械化發展為最主要方式。其中農業機器之利用，與機器產業乃至工業、製造業有密切關係，可說是溝通工農部門的關鍵。故本文以農業機器產業為線索，關注農業現代化中工業及其他現代部門參與的情形，及其所發揮之「農工並進」作用。 　　農業機器大約自十九世紀末期傳入中國，二十世紀初有少部分商人注意到斯業前景可期，著手製造販售。到1920年代，受到國外農機利用蓬勃發展的影響，江南地區機器業者也有不少轉而生產農業機器。這些以農業機器為主要產品的新式機器廠，發展出標準型號、大量生產，以及成立事務所、刊登廣告、參與展覽會、辦理講習等種種經營與行銷方式，更由於農業機器帶來的大量利潤，吸引資本家投資設廠，也使之轉型為新式企業組織。因此來自農村市場的機器需求，支持了工業部門的機器製造業進展。 　　除了民營事業的推進，政府當局也創辦公營製造廠、推廣模範灌溉與合作運動，國家力量促成農業機器利用的擴大。戰時儘管受到一定影響，但汪精衛政府在1940年代復籌措鉅資成立新式農業機器工廠；重慶政府則在同時間成立中國農業機械公司。前者在戰後改組為農林部無錫農具廠，對戰後江南的復員工作及農業生產極為重要；後者則在戰後接受聯總援華物資，承擔「全國農機擴建事業」在各地建立機器廠的任務。大略言之，近代中國農業機器產業之發展，是民間先於政府，但隨後在農業機械化之目標下，國家力量又主導產業成長，這種趨勢在1950年代以後達到高峰。 　　整體而言，近代中國農業機器業，並非如過去所認識的規模狹小、技術落後，反而是獲利豐厚的產業；由於在經濟發達地區更容易出現農業機器的利用，故而上海、無錫及常州等地密集普遍的機器工廠，能提供農業機器維修保障，因此以江南為例，可以看出農業機器產業不僅是農業機械化的基礎，也是機器產業提昇技術、擴大獲利之關鍵，二者互為因果。本文以江南為中心，但在空間方面注意到與東北經驗之比較、在時間方面也注意到戰時淪陷區的經營及戰後延續情形，擴大既有研究的時空範圍；通過對農業機器產業的探討，可以觀察工業與農業發展之互動關係，亦為近代中國經濟發展補充另一觀點。

Cette thèse porte sur l’évolution des relations des « nationalités historiques » espagnoles avec l’Union européenne dans les années 1992-2008. L’analyse se concentre sur la genèse d’une paradiplomatie nationaliste européenne dont l’objectif est la reconnaissance de l’identité nationale de ces communautés au sein de l’Union européenne. Après avoir obtenu une certaine reconnaissance nationale et un statut privilégié en Espagne, les élites de ces « nations sans État » ont remarqué que le processus de construction de l’Union européenne a des conséquences négatives sur leur autonomie et, dans ce contexte, ces élites nationalistes sont obligées à concevoir une vraie politique européenne pour protéger leurs intérêts nationaux en Espagne et dans l’Union européenne. À partir de l’étude des rapports établis entre les « nationalités historiques » espagnoles avec l’Union européenne, nous démontrons que l’involution autonomique (en Espagne) et le manque d’empathie de l’Union européenne envers ces communautés nationales sont les principales causes de la genèse de leur politique européenne. Loin d’être simplement associée à une forme de régionalisme ou de néo-régionalisme, cette politique étrangère (« action extérieure ») de ces entités envers l’Union européenne fait partie d’un processus de construction nationale et pourrait être définie comme une paradiplomatie nationaliste. La présente thèse, basée sur une analyse de la politique européenne des « nationalités historiques » entre 1992 et 2008, soutient que les limites du dessein institutionnel de l’Union européenne représentent la principale raison d’être de l’évolution de la paradiplomatie nationaliste vers une protodiplomatie apparemment incohérente. Dans une telle situation, l’inaptitude institutionnelle de l’Union européenne à accommoder les demandes nationalistes serait une cause majeure de l’échec des initiatives nationalistes autonomistes et, en même temps, une cause de l’émergence d’un nouveau courant nationaliste au sein des élites des « nations sans État » occidentales, dont le but est la construction d’un propre État national à l’intérieur de l’Union européenne. / This tesis deals with the story of the relationship between the Spanish "historical nationalities" and the European Union in 1992-2008. The analysis is focusing on the birth of EU-centred nationalist paradiplomacy with the aim of achieving national identity recognition for these communities within the European Union. After having obtained some national recognition and a privileged status within Spain, the elites of these "nations without state" have noted that the process of building the European Union has a negative impact on their autonomy and, in this context, these nationalist elites are forced to conceive a genuine European policy in order to protect their national interests in Spain and within the European Union. Based on the research on the relationship between the Spanish "historical nationalities" and the European Union, we argue that the autonomic involution (within Spain) and the EU lack of empathy for these national communities are the main causes of the birth of their European policy. Far from being simply associated with some kind of regionalism or neo-regionalism, this foreign policy ("external affairs") is a part of a process of national construction and could be defined as a nationalist paradiplomacy. Furthermore, based on an analysis of this EU-centred foreign policy between 1992 and 2008, our tesis claims that the limits of institutional design of the EU represent the main reason for the evolution of this nationalist paradiplomacy towards an apparently incoherent protodiplomacy. In such a situation, the EU institutional inability to accomodate the nationalist demands seems to be responsible for the failure of some Home Rule nationalist projects and stimulates the growth of a new wave of nationalists whose objective is a national State-building within the European Union.

En 1991, suite à la fin de la deuxième guerre du Golfe, un État de facto a été établi au Kurdistan irakien. Cette mutation d’un acteur contestataire kurde en un État de facto s’est avérée un gain sans précédent pour le « mouvement nationaliste kurde ». Néanmoins, malgré son importance historique, ce gain d’autonomie ne permit pas pour autant de dépasser les divisions présentes au sein du mouvement nationaliste kurde. Ce mémoire tente ainsi de comprendre les raisons du maintien de ces divisions. L’hypothèse proposée est que la raison pour laquelle la création d’un État de facto kurde en Irak n’a pas permis de dépasser les divisions du mouvement nationaliste est que ce dernier a poursuivi un projet de construction étatique similaire aux États de facto. Pour vérifier cette hypothèse, la recherche fait le lien entre la littérature sur les États de facto, le comportement du Kurdistan irakien et les divisions du mouvement nationaliste kurde. La recherche démontre dans un premier temps que la poursuite d’un projet de construction étatique a amené le Kurdistan irakien à prioriser sa légitimation interne plutôt que l’unité du mouvement nationaliste kurde. Elle démontre dans un deuxième temps qu’afin de réaliser ce projet, le Kurdistan irakien a employé des stratégies externes qui ont nui au reste du mouvement nationaliste kurde. / In 1991, following the end of the Second Gulf War, a de facto state has been established in Iraqi Kurdistan. This transformation of a protest actor into a de facto state has been an unprecedented gain for the « Kurdish nationalist movement ». However, despite his historic importance, this gain has failed to overtake divisions within the « Kurdish nationalist movement ». This thesis attempts to identity the reasons why the divisions have not faded away. The assumption is that the reason why these divisions have not been overtaken is because Iraqi Kurdistan has pursued a state-building project similar to those of de facto states. To test this hypothesis, this research links de facto state’s literature, Iraqi Kurdistan behaviour and the divisions of the « Kurdish nationalist movement ». This thesis first demonstrate that this project has led Iraqi Kurdistan to establish other priorities that the « Kurdish nationalist movement » unity. It then shows that to realize this state-building project, Iraqi Kurdistan has used external strategies that have affected the rest of the movement.