scholarly journals Geopolitics of the colonial prison island: The case of Poulo Condor (Con Dao)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Fuggle
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Penal Colonies ◽  
French Colonial

This article takes up the specific example of Poulo Condor (the Con Dao archipelago in Vietnam) as colonial prison island in order to examine this persistence of colonial island imaginaries built around the imagined project of the prison island well into the middle of the 20th century. Such imaginaries appear to run counter to dominant political discourse of the period along with ongoing media campaigns calling for the end to penal transportation and overseas penal colonies. This article contends that closer attention needs to be paid to the disjuncts and gaps between the official discourse of the French colonial authorities located in France and the enactment of such discourse in the colonies themselves. The central focus of the article is a close analysis of correspondence between colonial officials stationed in French Indochina from 1925 onwards; these documents will be contextualised with reference to the longer histories of both the Con Dao archipelago and France’s use of prison islands. An understanding of Poulo Condor as a complex extralegal space will be framed by Ann Laura Stoler’s concept of the ‘colony’ as it develops Giorgio Agamben’s notion of the ‘state of exception’ and Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘security’. What emerges is an ongoing colonial pathology which continues to fixate on the prison island as a key colonial stake even after such a stake has become increasing untenable.

scholarly journals Introduction: The Return of the Exception

2021 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 7-15
Author(s):  
Rafał Mańko ◽  
Przemysław Tacik ◽  
Gian Giacomo Fusco
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
The State ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Emergency Powers ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

The history of the 20th century, and more recently the two-decades long war on terror, have taught us the lesson that the normalisation of the state of exception (intended here as the proliferation of legal instruments regulating emergency powers, and their constant use in varied situations of crisis) is never immune from the risk of leaving long-lasting impacts of legal and political systems. With the “Return of the Exception” we intend to bring to the fore the fact that in the pandemic the state of exception has re-appeared in its “grand” version, the one that pertains to round-the-clock curfews and strong limitations to the freedom of movement and assembly, all adorned by warfare rhetoric of the fight against an invisible enemy – which, given the biological status of viruses, it cannot but be ourselves. But “return” here must be intended also in its psychoanalytic meaning. Much like the repressed that lives in a state of latency in the unconscious before eventually returning to inform consciousness and reshape behaviour, the state of exception is an element that remains nested in law’s text before reappearing in a specific moment with forms and intensity that are not fully predictable. Still, it remains cryptic whether the pandemic inaugurates a new epoch of liberal legality – the post-law – or just augurs its structural crisis.

scholarly journals Trajetórias e paisagens de exílio na narrativa de Primo Levi

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Anna Basevi
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Exile Literature ◽  
Primo Levi ◽  
The Status

Resumo: A obra de Primo Levi representa diversas formas do desterro – o exílio “absoluto”, o nóstos, a diáspora – que moldam a própria estrutura narrativa. A condição do exilado parece assumir a função metafórica de uma experiência histórica e humana, função que Claudio Magris atribui ao mundo judaico e que, ao mesmo tempo, se insere entre os tópicos da literatura do séc. XX. Nestes contextos distintos de exílio, o artigo evidencia as formas de descrever a paisagem estrangeira capazes de trazer à tona marcas estilísticas e narrativas do autor, em diálogo com a literatura clássica de Homero e Ovídio, e com as representações bíblicas. Esta proposta de leitura confirma a ligação estreita, presente em Levi, entre a condição de estrangeiro e a condição do ser humano no estado de exceção da Europa dominada pelo nazismo.Palavras-Chave: exílio; literatura; Primo Levi.Abstract: Primo Levi’s work portrays several exile forms: the “absolute” exile, the nóstos, the diaspora. These are kinds of exile that help shaping the narrative structure itself. The exiled seems to assume a metaphoric function for both historical and human condition. According to Claudio Magris, this function can be, at the same time, related to the Jewish world and inserted among literary topics from the 20th century. Drawing on those distinct contexts of exile, this article shows how the descriptions of the foreign landscape are evidence to the author’s stylistic and narrative features, in connection with the classic literature of Homer and Ovid, and with the biblical representations. This analysis proposal confirms the close connection, present in Levi, between the status of foreigner and the condition of the human being in the state of exception of Europe dominated by Nazism.Keywords: exile; literature; Primo Levi.

“I'd make thee eat the mischief thou hast vented”: Discourse of Law in Ben Jonson's Catiline His Conspiracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Akihiko Shimizu
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Gunpowder Plot ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Legal Procedures ◽  
The Way

This essay explores the discourse of law that constitutes the controversial apprehension of Cicero's issuing of the ultimate decree of the Senate (senatus consultum ultimum) in Catiline. The play juxtaposes the struggle of Cicero, whose moral character and legitimacy are at stake in regards to the extra-legal uses of espionage, with the supposedly mischievous Catilinarians who appear to observe legal procedures more carefully throughout their plot. To mitigate this ambivalence, the play defends Cicero's actions by depicting the way in which Cicero establishes the rhetoric of public counsel to convince the citizens of his legitimacy in his unprecedented dealing with Catiline. To understand the contemporaneousness of Catiline, I will explore the way the play integrates the early modern discourses of counsel and the legal maxim of ‘better to suffer an inconvenience than mischief,’ suggesting Jonson's subtle sensibility towards King James's legal reformation which aimed to establish and deploy monarchical authority in the state of emergency (such as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). The play's climactic trial scene highlights the display of the collected evidence, such as hand-written letters and the testimonies obtained through Cicero's spies, the Allbroges, as proof of Catiline's mischievous character. I argue that the tactical negotiating skills of the virtuous and vicious characters rely heavily on the effective use of rhetoric exemplified by both the political discourse of classical Rome and the legal discourse of Tudor and Jacobean England.

Documents from the State Archive of the Orel Region as a Source for Studying Peasant Legal Sense in Early 20th Century

2018 ◽  
pp. 98-108
Author(s):  
Vadim V. Kulachkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
The State ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Agrarian Question ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Legal Sense

The article studies documents from the State Archive of the Orel Region (GAOO) as an important source for studying the sense of justice of the Oryol gubernia peasants in early 20th century. Introduction of new archival materials allows to flesh out our knowledge and to produce a true-to-life picture of the Oryol peasants’ way of life. The peasant origins of the majority of the population necessitate a comprehensive study of peasant legal consciousness. Historical legacy is pertinent to present day, and forgetting its lessons is fraught with consequences. Evolution of modern Russian statehood hedges on its historical and legal traditions. The article studies documents in the fonds of public authorities, police, gendarmerie, courts, and prosecution offices. Introduction of new materials of public authorities, police, gendarmerie, courts, and prosecution offices into the scholarship promotes the analysis of the evolution of peasant legal sense in early 20th century. The chronological framework of the article is limited to the period from 1900 to 1917, its territorial framework is limited to the Oryol gubernia in its pre-revolutionary borders. The article studies reports, dispatches, and circular letters using the comparative method. The intensification of peasant protest was incidental to the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907 – the peasants hoped to force the government to settle the agrarian question, wherein lay the crux of their interests. As peasants of the Oryol gubernia suffered from shortage of arable land, antimonarchical sentiments gained momentum and translated a growing number of trials for contempt of the Emperor. Illegal literature spreading among the peasants, further radicalized them, and the authorities grew more and more hesitant in their assessment of peasant loyalty, which is quite intelligible in the archival documents. Thus, the use of new archival documents in addition to published materials promotes the scholarship on the peasant legal sense.

Outbreak of beriberi in the state of Maranhão, Brazil: revisiting the mycotoxin aetiologic hypothesis

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Cristina Alves Vieira Lima ◽  
Eucilene Alves Santana Porto ◽  
José Ricardo Pio Marins ◽  
Rejane Maria Alves ◽  
Rosângela Rosa Machado ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Thiamine Deficiency ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
The State ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Subsistence Farming

Beriberi is caused by thiamine deficiency. Early 20th century epidemics in Japan were attributed to rice contaminated by citreoviridin mycotoxin. Our investigation of an outbreak of beriberi in Brazil showed an association of beriberi with the consumption of poor quality subsistence farming rice, although, unlike other investigators of this outbreak, we did not identify citreoviridin producing fungi in the implicated rice.

Governance Gaps in the Sixth Schedule Mechanisms in Meghalaya

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-480
Author(s):  
Kavita N. Soreide
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
Autonomous District ◽  
North East ◽  
Tribal Communities

The legal-political discourse at the time of drafting of independent India’s Constitution resulted in a unique constitutional arrangement guaranteeing a model of self-government through setting up Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) for some of India’s designated tribal communities. This constitutional modality governing the tribal majority regions in India’s North-east is known as the Sixth Schedule. Given the pre-existing tribal institutions, it was implied that ADCs were to act as ‘bridges of governance’ between the state and traditional polity. This article tries to look at the nature of governance and gaps in governance through the lens of ADCs.

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