scholarly journals Fostering of National Identity in Emigration Through Lithuanian Folk Dance

Pedagogika ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-199
Author(s):  
Laimutė Kisielienė
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
North America ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Folk Dance ◽  
Dance Teacher ◽  
Identity Maintenance ◽  
Dance Teachers ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
First World

he article analyses the Lithuanian folk dance as a means of national identity fostering in Lithuanian diaspora in North America. National identity maintenance especially in emigration is topical problem which started with the first wave of emigrants into US after the First World War. The evolution of Lithuanian folk dance in North America can be divided into two parts.  The first period involves Lithuanian dance origins in North America, where in 1925 the first Lithuanian dances were captured in Lithuanian operas and choral performances. The first and second waves of emigrants didn't have chance to experience folk dance revival period in Lithuania, so they tried to dance dances which they knew from their parents and grandparents. Therefore dance repertoire was not abundant. During this period national dance activities were enlivened and enriched only by M. Baronaitės arrival from Lithuania seeking to maintain national identity and to expand dance repertoire.The second Lithuanian folk dance development period in North America covers the period from 1944, when the third wave of emigrants, who has experienced national revival in Lithuania,  joined  the  Saturday  schools  and  established  Lithuanian  dance  ensembles  which  expanded Lithuanian folk dance repertoire in North America. Most of the national dance up holders were teachers, who acquired dance knowledge in primary school physical education teacher courses or by teaching children dance at Lithuanian schools.Lithuanian  Folk  Dance  Institute  (LFDI)  is  an  important  cultural  institution,  which aims  to  explore  and  spread  Lithuanian  folk  dances,  to  promote  the  related  customs, games, folklore, folkmusic and costumes hereby encouraging Lithuanian national identity. The focus of LFDI is appointed to organization of folk dance festivals, selection of artistic director and program approval. One of the major challenges of LFDI is to hold annual dance teacher seminars, which seek to improve folk dance teachers’ competences.

"Militarizacija materinstva" – ženski "naravni poklic" in vélika vojna

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-89
Author(s):  
Ana Cergol Paradiž
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
First World War ◽  
Promotional Material ◽  
World War ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
Female Authors ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Mothers And Children ◽  
Representations Of Women ◽  
First World

With the help of publications, legislation, memoranda and promotional material, this article shows how various actors in the Slovene-speaking area, during the First World War, addressed their mothers, and if also in their cases, the phenomenon of the "militarization of motherhood" was shown, which was typical of other European countries. In the context of the discourse "militarization of motherhood", it analyzes the ways of how female (national) identity was formed. It tries to answer the question of what (patriotic) duties were imposed to women as mothers, for example, if as a result of declining birth rates in that time, even we encountered pronatalistic initiatives, especially those that were advocating social and health protection of (illegitimate) mothers and children. It also analyzes the views on the educational work of mothers at the time when this was, due to the absence of fathers, irregular lessons and the difficult war situation, even more difficult. At the same time, it studies the representations of women as mourning mothers at the deaths of their sons-soldiers. In this context, it establishes that during the war, the motif of a mourning, but brave and proud mother was frequent also in the Slovene press. A separate chapter presents the views of female authors on the topic of motherhood.

Torrefranca vs. Puccini: embodying a decadent Italy

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-53
Author(s):  
ALEXANDRA WILSON
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
First World War ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Giacomo Puccini ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Italian Culture ◽  
First World

Puccini reception lay at the heart of a crisis of national identity that gripped Italy between the turn of the century and the First World War. For Puccini's detractors his works were an emblem of decadence; for his supporters they provided a means for regeneration. In his vitriolic monograph, Giacomo Puccini e l'opera internazionale (1912), Fausto Torrefranca associated Puccini with dangerous ‘others’ – women, homosexuals and Jews – in order to instil fear about the ‘feminisation’ of Italian culture. The reception of his book shows that Torrefranca's ‘extreme’ views were widely shared.

scholarly journals Happy is the Land that Needs No Heroes

2018 ◽  
pp. 111-142
Author(s):  
Donna Coates
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
National Identity ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Defining Moment ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Military Victory ◽  
First World

This essay interrogates two articles by the Canadian historian Jeff Keshen and the Australian historian Mark Sheftall, which assert that the representations of soldiers in the First World War (Anzacs in Australia, members of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, the CEF), are comparable. I argue, however, that in reaching their conclusions, these historians have either overlooked or insufficiently considered a number of crucial factors, such as the influence the Australian historian/war correspondent C. E. W. Bean had on the reception of Anzacs, whom he venerated and turned into larger-than-life men who liked fighting and were good at it; the significance of the “convict stain” in Australia; and the omission of women writers’ contributions to the “getting of nationhood” in each country. It further addresses why Canadians have not embraced Vimy (a military victory) as their defining moment in the same way as Australians celebrate the landing at Anzac Cove (a military disaster), from which they continue to derive their sense of national identity. In essence, this essay advances that differences between the two nations’ representations of soldiers far outweigh any similarities.

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