The Institutionalization of the Bulgarian Circus between 1944 and 1957

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-178
Author(s):  
Sylwia Siedlecka
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Large Family ◽  
The State ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Post War ◽  
New Research ◽  
Intellectual Elites

This article analyzes the process of institutionalization of the Bulgarian circus be-tween 1944 and 1957. The appreciation of circus as “an equal member of the large family of socialist arts” was rooted in a belief that it was a democratic spectacle which transcended social divisions and classes. The source of the perception of the circus as an instrument of social change can be traced to pre-war Soviet tradition, when the circus became not only a tool of state cultural policy, but also inspired the most important creators of literary and theater avant-garde. In post-war Bulgaria, in order to improve the quality of performances, interinstitutional cooperation of the circus with literary and theater circles was initiated, and with the purchase of circuses by the state, numerous regulations were introduced in the profession of a circus artist. This purchase was not synonymous with nationalization: the state bought the circuses from the hands of their pre-war owners, allowing them to continue to perform strategic functions in the circuses.At the same time, despite deep institutional changes, the circus after 1944 main-tained its semi-peripheral status of an entertainment spectacle, not worth considering on the part of intellectual elites and unfit for the project of national high art. It is this peripheral potential of the circus as a spectacle not shaped by the refinement of the elites, that opens up new research perspectives which allow us to view the circus as a laboratory of social and cultural change. As a nomadic travelling institution, the circus crossed geographical boundaries and communicated with viewers from cities and villages, as well as representatives of various social groups and strata. On the other hand, multiethnic, international environment of the circus was a space for inten-sive transfer and intercultural dialogue, both in the artistic dimension and in the sphere of everyday interpersonal practices.

State Sponsored Literature

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asha Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
British Council ◽  
Material Condition ◽  
State Involvement ◽  
Satanic Verses ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
Post War ◽  
Archival Work

Debates about the value of the ‘literary’ rarely register the expressive acts of state subsidy, sponsorship, and cultural policy that have shaped post-war Britain. In State Sponsored Literature, Asha Rogers argues that the modern state was a major material condition of literature, even as its efforts were relative, partial, and prone to disruption. Drawing from neglected and occasionally unexpected archives, she shows how the state became an integral and conflicted custodian of literary freedom in the postcolonial world as beliefs about literature’s ‘public’ were radically challenged by the unrivalled migration to Britain at the end of Empire. State Sponsored Literature retells the story of literature’s place in modern Britain through original analysis of the institutional forces behind canon-formation and contestation, from the literature programmes of the British Council and Arts Council to the UK’s fraught relations with UNESCO, from GCSE literature anthologies to the origins of The Satanic Verses in migrant Camden. The state did not shape literary production in a vacuum, Rogers argues, rather its policies, practices, and priorities were inexorably shaped in turn. Demonstrating how archival work can potentially transform our understanding of literature and its reading publics, this book challenges how we think about literature’s value by asking what state involvement has meant for writers, readers, institutions, and the ideal of autonomy itself.

Ende von Anfang an Wege zu György Ligetis San Francisco Polyphony

2016 ◽  
Vol 57 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 91-104
Author(s):  
Lorenz Luyken
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
The State ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Stylistic Development ◽  
Post War

György Ligeti’s comments on his last large orchestral piece San Francisco Polyphony show a remarkable understatement, if not neglect, of this work. This paper intends to find reasons for this attitude. It analyzes the correlation between title and substance, in particular the description of the work as being polyphonic, showing that the piece is less polyphonic than it is melodic or even thematic, resulting from coherent stylistic development as well as from an innate spatial conception rather than from a switchback to 19th-century procedures. At the end, San Francisco Polyphony proves to be a very personal comment on the state of the post-war musical avant-garde and the discussion about postmodernism in music.

scholarly journals The Graphic Heritage of the Russian Avant-Garde as an Object of Acquisition in the Tretyakov Gallery in the 1920s–1930s

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
Д.А. Петрова
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Art Museum ◽  
The State ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
State Museum ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Ideological Attitudes

Статья посвящена выявлению особенностей комплектования фондов Третьяковской галереи произведениями графики русского авангарда в 20–30-е гг. ХХ в. в контексте изменения тенденций государственной культурной политики того времени. Исследование выполнено на основе данных Книг поступлений Третьяковской галереи и документов, хранящихся в Отделе рукописей музея. Проанализирована политика приобретения художественных произведений в музейные коллекции, изучена деятельность Музея живописной культуры, произведен анализ поступлений в Третьяковскую галерею. Прослежено изменение вектора культурной политики в первые годы советской власти, взявшей на вооружение реализм в качестве основного идеологического инструмента. Установлено, что графические произведения русских художников-авангардистов стали достоянием фондов Третьяковской галереи в результате двух больших поступлений – после расформирования Государственного музейного фонда (1927 г.) и вследствие ликвидации Музея живописной культуры (1929 г.). The study aims to (1) answer the question about the time and circumstances in which works of Russian avant-garde graphics appeared in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, and (2) determine how the efforts of the national museum aimed at acquiring its funds correlated with trends in the state’s museum policy. The study was carried out based on data from the Tretyakov Gallery’s inventory books and documents stored in the museum’s Department of Manuscripts. In the process of work, the author turned to the books of the Tretyakov Gallery acquisitions kept during the period under study, documents stored in the Department of Manuscripts of the museum, materials of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, as well as results of research by specialists in art and museum studies who examined the legacy of the Russian avant-garde and its reflection in Russian museum collections. The author mainly used methodological tools inherent in historical research: a historical-systems approach and methods of historical-comparative studies. The author analyzes changes in the state museum policy in managing the acquisition of art museum collection funds after the revolutionary events of 1917. She also investigates the work of the Museum of Pictorial Culture, whose collection included works of avant-garde artists. The author determines the moment of change in the orientations of the young Soviet state’s cultural policy; the predominant use of realism in art was the main ideological instrument of this policy. She analyzes the works of art the Tretyakov Gallery received, reveals the avant-garde works the museum obtained in the late 1930s, identifies the trends that influenced the acquisition of the gallery funds in the subsequent period. The author has established that the works of avant-garde graphics became the property of the Tretyakov Gallery funds after two large-scale acquisitions – after the dissolution of the State Museum Fund (1927) and after the liquidation of the Museum of Pictorial Culture (1929). In the 1930s, there was a deformation of all museum activities, including the acquisition of funds. In relation to the collection of modern graphics at the Tretyakov Gallery, this deformation, in particular, manifested itself in the narrowing of the subject matter and directions of acquisition, and the withdrawal from the collection of works that contradicted ideological attitudes and political dogmas.

scholarly journals Nowe perspektywy w badaniach nad nowożytnymi albumami przyjaźni

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-42
Author(s):  
Anna Michalska
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
The State ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Visual Objects ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
History Of Books ◽  
New Research ◽  
The University

New research perspectives on books of friendshipThe article, based on a study of books of friendship alba amicorum in the collection of the University Library in Wrocław, aims at presenting new research perspectives on this kind of manuscripts. The author outlines the history of books of friendship and gives an explanation on the state of research footnotes 11 to 19, focusing on methods and undertaken topics. In the subsequent sections, alba amicorum are presented as “Objects and elements of the network,” “Collections” and “Performances.” The section “Objects and network elements of the network” refers to the return to materiality and the idea of the agency of things. It presents alba amicorum as material entities not only carriers of certain information or pieces of art, as well as an active part in the development and sustaining of social networks. Each book of friendship is both a collection of autographs, visual objects, quotes from literature and a collectible piece. This approach was presented in the section titled “Collections.” At the same time, alba amicorum gathered in museums or libraries tend to lose their performative character, presented in the last section.

Touchy-Feely History: The ‘Stuff’ of American Culture

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-18
Author(s):  
Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Economic Trends ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
New Research

This state of the field essay examines recent trends in American Cultural History, focusing on music, race and ethnicity, material culture, and the body. Expanding on key themes in articles featured in the special issue of Cultural History, the essay draws linkages to other important literatures. The essay argues for more a more serious consideration of the products within popular culture, less as a reflection of social or economic trends, rather for their own historical significance. While the essay examines some classic texts, more emphasis is on work published within the last decade. Here, interdisciplinary methods are stressed, as are new research perspectives developing by non-western historians.

The Slovene literature in Austria (the national and the polycultural)

2020 ◽  
pp. 446-460
Author(s):  
Nadezhda N. Starikova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodology ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
The State ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Linguistic Terms ◽  
Protective Function ◽  
Slovenian Population ◽  
New Research

In 1920, the native Slovenian lands of southern Carinthia were included into the Austrian Republic, and the Slovenian population fell under the jurisdiction of the state, the official language of which was German. Under these conditions, literature in the native language became an important factor in the resistance against assimilation for the Carinthian Slovenes. However, decades later, the national protective function of the artistic word gradually came to naught. The contemporary literature of the Slovenian minority in Austria is a special phenomenon combining national and polycultural components and having two cultural and historical contexts, two identities - Slovenian and Austro-German. In aesthetic, thematic, linguistic terms, this literature is so diverse that it no longer fits into a literature of a national minority, and can no longer be automatically assigned to only one of the two literatures - Slovenian or Austrian. A variety of works, including proper Slovenian texts, hybrid bilingual forms, and compositions in German, of course, requires a new research methodology that would expand existing approaches and could cover the literary practice of those who create a panorama of Carinthian reality, which is in demand both in Slovenia and in Austria.

Party and Democracy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piero Ignazi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
The State ◽  
Societal Change ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Post War ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes

The book integrates philosophical, historical, and empirical analyses in order to highlight the profound roots of the limited legitimation of parties in contemporary society. Political parties’ long attempts to gain legitimacy are analysed from a philosophical–historical perspective pinpointing crucial passages in their theoretical and empirical acceptance. The book illustrates the process through which parties first emerged and then achieved full legitimacy in the early twentieth century. It shows how, paradoxically, their role became absolute in the totalitarian regimes of the interwar period when the party became hyper-powerful. In the post-war period, parties shifted from a golden age of positive reception and organizational development towards a more difficult relationship with society as it moved into post-industrialism. Parties were unable to master societal change and favoured the state to recover resources they were no longer able to extract from their constituencies. Parties have become richer and more powerful, but they have ‘paid’ for their pervasive presence in society and the state with a declining legitimacy. The party today is caught in a dramatic contradiction. It has become a sort of Leviathan with clay feet: very powerful thanks to the resources it gets from the state and to its control of societal and state spheres due to an extension of clientelistic and patronage practices; but very weak in terms of legitimacy and confidence in the eyes of the mass public. However, it is argued that there is still no alternative to the party, and some hypotheses to enhance party democracy are advanced.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aled Davies
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary System ◽  
The State ◽  
Real Economy ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
City Of London ◽  
The City

The aim of this book has been to evaluate the relationship between Britain’s financial sector, based in the City of London, and the social democratic economic strategy of post-war Britain. The central argument presented in the book was that changes to the City during the 1960s and 1970s undermined a number of the key post-war social democratic techniques designed to sustain and develop a modern industrial economy. Financial institutionalization weakened the state’s ability to influence investment, and the labour movement was unable successfully to integrate the institutionalized funds within a renewed social democratic economic agenda. The post-war settlement in banking came under strain in the 1960s as new banking and credit institutions developed that the state struggled to manage. This was exacerbated by the decision to introduce competition among the clearing banks in 1971, which further weakened the state’s capacity to control the provision and allocation of credit to the real economy. The resurrection of an unregulated global capital market, centred on London, overwhelmed the capacity of the state to pursue domestic-focused macroeconomic policies—a problem worsened by the concurrent collapse of the Bretton Woods international monetary system. Against this background, the fundamental social democratic assumption that national prosperity could be achieved only through industry-led growth and modernization was undermined by an effective campaign to reconceptualize Britain as a fundamentally financial and commercial nation with the City of London at its heart....

New Folk Music as Attempted Repatriation in Romania

2018 ◽  
pp. 436-452
Author(s):  
Maurice Mengel
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
New Products ◽  
New Product ◽  
The State ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Socialist State ◽  
New Form

This chapter looks at cultural policy toward folk music (muzică populară) in socialist Romania (1948–1989), covering three areas: first, the state including its intentions and actions; second, ethnomusicologists as researchers of rural peasant music and employees of the state, and, third, the public as reached by state institutions. The article argues that Soviet-induced socialist cultural policy effectively constituted a repatriation of peasant music that was systematically collected; documented and researched; intentionally transformed into new products, such as folk orchestras, to facilitate the construction of communism; and then distributed in its new form through a network of state institutions like the mass media. Sources indicate that the socialist state was partially successful in convincing its citizens about the authenticity of the new product (that new folklore was real folklore) while the original peasant music was to a large extent inaccessible to nonspecialist audiences.

Policing and Political Violence

2021 ◽  
pp. 002200272110130
Author(s):  
Kristine Eck ◽  
Courtenay R. Conrad ◽  
Charles Crabtree
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Conflict Studies ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Conflict Processes ◽  
State Security ◽  
New Research ◽  
Conflict Research

The police are often key actors in conflict processes, yet there is little research on their role in the production of political violence. Previous research provides us with a limited understanding of the part the police play in preventing or mitigating the onset or escalation of conflict, in patterns of repression and resistance during conflict, and in the durability of peace after conflicts are resolved. By unpacking the role of state security actors and asking how the state assigns tasks among them—as well as the consequences of these decisions—we generate new research paths for scholars of conflict and policing. We review existing research in the field, highlighting recent findings, including those from the articles in this special issue. We conclude by arguing that the fields of policing and conflict research have much to gain from each other and by discussing future directions for policing research in conflict studies.

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