Imagining the Urban Poland: Revolution and Reconceptualization of Urban Society in the Kingdom of Poland, 1905‒1914

The aim of this article is to analyze how the concept of mieszczaństwo was redefined in Polish political discourse between 1905 and 1914 in conjunction with concepts of intelligentsia and bourgeoisie. My hypothesis is that before the Great War, in a time of powerful social and political revolutions that took place on the streets of Warsaw, Łódź and other cities, new ways of conceptualizing the urban society emerged. I shall discuss the circumstances that led to the forming of the concept of the Polish mieszczaństwo during the debate about the urban self-government in the Kingdom of Poland after the 1905 Revolution. As the city itself became the subject of political competition, and the right to govern the city became a demand of the Polish public opinion. For National Democratic Party it was an excellent occasion to expand anti-Semitic rhetoric and promote the idea of the Polonization of cities as a long-term goal. However, I argue that this rhetoric would not find public response if the intelligentsia itself would not redefined its attitude to other groups of urban dwellers. The mieszczaństwo, which had no political meaning previously, became the main factor of the imagined modernization of Poland. Despite the price of the ethnic conflict it became obvious that Poland had to be urbanized to be modernized.

Examining Semitic Rhetoric: A Qur’anic Sciences Perspective

In his study of Qur’anic structure, Michel Cuypers applied Semitic Rhetoric that has been used to analyze Biblical structure. Despite having received positive responses from Gabriel Said Reynolds and others, Cuypers’ method was criticized by Nicolai Sinai for ignoring rhyme in the Qur’an and overdoing in maintaining the existence of the ring structure in the Qur’an. This paper, then, attempts to examine this analytic method from the perspective of the Qur’anic sciences’ (‘ulu>m al-Qur’a>n). This study aims to determine proportionally the characteristics of the method and the effect it produces by using descriptive-analytic and comparative research methods. This paper argues that there are subjectivity and inconsistency in dividing the text and determining the structure of its composition, as in the study of surah al-Qa>ri‘ah by Cuypers, and an ignorance of the information about reasons for the revelations (asba>b al-nuzu>l) and Prophet’s explanation about verses. However, the application of this method can lead to a new interpretation of the Qur’an, namely by using the information in the Qur’an itself, indicators of wording around it (siya>q), and verse correlation (muna>saba>t). On the other hand, this method supports the authenticity and coherence of the Qur’anic text, which has become a debate among the Orientalists.

The 1948 War

Israeli historians have shown that the 1948 war might have been averted had Israel explored a number of opportunities to reach agreements with the Palestinians, as well as with Egypt, the most important Arab country. Even during the Arab invasion, the Arab armies were small, uncoordinated, and lacking in the capability to destroy Israel; their primary intentions were to counter the territorial goals of their Arab rivals. Nonetheless, their bloodthirsty anti-Semitic rhetoric ensured that Israel would regard the attack as designed to annihilate it. Even before the invasion, the Zionists began the process of expelling some 700,000–750,000 Palestinians from the territories it intended to include in the state of Israel. These actions became known as the “Nakba” (Arabic for “catastrophe”), or in the modern term, “ethnic cleansing.” and they continue to haunt the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially on the issue of “the right of return.”

Penerapan Semitic Rhetorical Analysis (SRA) Pada Surah Al-Qiyamah

Nicolai Sinai has criticized the method of Qur’anic structural analysis offered by Michel Cuypers due to his arbitrary mode of cutting verses and neglecting rhyme of the Qur’an. This paper, then, attempts to apply the method, which is called as Semitic Rhetorical Analysis (SRA), into surah al-Qiyamah by concerning the waqf of the verses. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the structure of surah al-Qiyamah is coherent and consistent to the pattern of text composition in Semitic Rhetoric analysis. This paper argues that there are parallel, concentric, or mirror symmetrical composition patterns at various levels of text based on Semitic Rhetoric principles. The structure of the surah, then, shows its coherence and thus, opposes to the notion of the existing of some irrelevant verses in this surah.

Qur’anic Syntax

In this study, ‘syntax’ means the way the diverse parts of a sura or diverse suras are connected between each other to compose coherent sets with semantic unity. The classical Islamic tradition (al-Zarkāshī, al-Suyūṭī, al-Biqāʿī …) has partially studied it under the titles of naẓm, ‘composition (of the text)’, and ʿilm al-munāsaba, ‘the science of correlation (between verses or suras)’. Some modern Muslim exegetes (Amīn Aḥsan Iṣlāḥī, Saʿīd Ḥawwā) pushed the syntax analysis further, in an original way. Orientalists (Neuwirth, Crapon de Caprona, Salwa El-Awa, Robinson, Zahniser) have been interested in the syntax of the text since 1980. Cuypers elaborates on the Semitic rhetoric, discovered in biblical studies but perfectly applicable to the Qur’anic text.

The European and Russian Far Right as Political Actors: Comparative Approach

The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of the far right (nationalist) as political actors in Russia and in Europe. Whereas the European far-right movements over the last years managed to achieve significant success turning into influential political forces as a result of surging popular support, in Russia the far-right organizations failed to become the fully-fledged political actors. This looks particularly surprising, given the historically deep-rooted nationalist tradition, which stems from the times Russian Empire. Before the 1917 revolution, the so-called «Black Hundred» was one of the major far-right organizations, exploiting nationalistic and anti-Semitic rhetoric, which had representation in the Russian parliament – The State Duma. During the most Soviet period all the far-right movements in Russia were suppressed, re-emerging in the late 1980s as rather vocal political force. But currently the majority of them are marginal groups, partly due to the harsh party regulation, partly due to the fact, that despite state-sponsored nationalism the position of Russian far right does not stand in-line with the position of Russian authorities, trying to suppress the Russian nationalists. This is sharply contrasting with the situation with the far right in Europe, which are more well-established and institutionalized as political actors, using conventional forms of political activity. However, despite some differences with the European counterparts, the Russian far right have obvious potential as political actors, which can be realized under certain circumstances, enabling them to play more significant in the political system of Russia.

Austrian postwar democratic consensus and anti-Semitism

This paper explores the relation between the use of anti-Semitic rhetoric in post-war Austrian parliamentary debate and the development of the consensus-oriented, corporatist model of Austrian democracy, the “consociational model,” between 1945 and 1955. Specifically, this paper examines the anti-Semitic stereotypes found in parliament, an arena where “the sayable” of official politics is defined, and whether such anti-Semitic stereotyping serves political-strategic purposes. The predominant pattern of exclusion proves to be the attribution of ambivalence, drawing on the repertoire of nationalist anti-Semitic stereotypes, depicting “emigrants” as “cowards,” incapable of love for and defense of their countries. The analysis shows this pattern of exclusion is rooted in an ethnicized, homogeneous, and masculinist understanding of the people – recurrent in contemporary right-wing movements and parties. It follows the lines of Carl Schmitt’s concept of the political, in which the distinction of “friend” and “enemy,” and hence, the eradication of pluralism and ambivalence, is pivotal.

Opera by the Book

In 1944 with Nazi Germany just months from defeat, a curious and now little-known book was published in Regensburg: a collection of essays and biographies that strove to define the contemporary state of opera. Titled Die deutsche Oper der Gegenwart (German Opera of the Present Day), this substantial and lavishly produced volume documents the aesthetics of opera during the Third Reich through its profiles of sixty-two composers, more than 250 design drawings and photographs, prose essays on drama and staging, and an extensive works list. The National Socialist alignment of the book’s primary author (the theater historian Carl Niessen) and publishing company (Gustav Bosse Verlag) contextualizes the volume’s problematic scholarly priorities. Niessen interleaved explanations and endorsements of viable manifestations of contemporary German opera with anti-Semitic rhetoric and venomous critiques of rival aesthetic views. The book’s time-capsule version of the “state of the art” also includes evidence that contradicts postwar claims by composers, such as Winfried Zillig, who later recast themselves as persecuted modernists but whose statements within the volume demonstrate their complicity. Pamela Potter has recommended that musicologists address the longstanding historiographical problem of defining “Nazi Music” by paying detailed attention to particularities. Analyzing the form, contents, and rhetoric of a single printed object permits insights into the definition, valuation, and canonization of contemporary opera near the end of the Third Reich.