Nationalist Discourses

This chapter studies Cypriot LGBTIQs’ intersectional politics amidst the socio-political environment within which these are articulated, marked by strong nationalistic discourses as well as tensions with European identity and belonging. Specifically, it examines the ways in which local and EU discourses about nationhood, gender, and sexuality shape dynamics of intersectionality. It does so by analysing how gender and sexual identities are formed and by questioning how these formations inform LGBTIQ movement politics in contentious contexts. The chapter employs a qualitative research design and thematically analyses empirical ethnographic data that includes interviews with Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot LGBTIQ participants. It marks intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic dynamics of in-group exclusions. The research argues that these exclusions are reinforced by local notions about ‘Europe,’ expressed through the ‘Europe/West-versus-the-Rest’ dichotomy. Nonetheless, it also finds that the successes of the Cypriot LGBTIQ movement have been based on opportunities afforded by ‘Europe’ and Europeanisation. Therefore, this chapter builds a theoretical and empirical framework for understanding the implications of understandings of nationhood, gender, and sexuality on LGBTIQ politics when the ‘Rest’ meets the ‘West/Europe.’

This article explores the ways in which feminist and women’s agency is articulated in the Cypriot context through the paradigms of nationalism, peace, and conflict. It does so to broaden our understanding of gendered and peace agency in troubled and divided societies, in which complex and conflicting discourses meet. Analyzing data from interviews with feminist and women’s groups’ representatives, it examines how nationalism and women’s approaches to gender, politics, peace, and conflict enable or restrict feminist and women’s agency. It finds that a strategic essentialist approach has initiated a reconfiguration of gender(ed) power relations, women’s agency, and peacebuilding processes. It argues that when this approach is combined with feminist theory and praxis and the employment of transnational peace paradigms, the possibilities for feminist and women’s agency increase, as long as feminist scholarship and grassroots activism inform each other through dialogue. Therefore, it highlights the nuanced and complex dialectic between essentialist and anti-essentialist feminist gender discourses. Moreover, it challenges theories that posit a rigidly hierarchical relation between local and transnational gendered and peace agency paradigms, by demonstrating their malleability and reciprocity. Thus, it contributes to the debate about the modalities and possibilities of feminist sociopolitical intervention in nationalism- and conflict-ridden contexts.

KEYWORDS: Cyprus; feminism; gender; nationalism and peace; women’s agency

In the sociopolitical space of divided Cyprus the political problem dominates, leaving little space for discussions about the exclusions it produces. The accentuation of existing patriarchal structures and essentialist gender role binarisms by masculinist and heteronormative nationalist discourses is a prevalent phenomenon in Cyprus, as it in other locales that face analogous ethnonational problems. However, a preliminary glance at filmic spaces suggests that in Cypriot films women assume diverse and significant roles, which both intensify and emasculate predominant discourses.

This chapter evaluates gender issues in Cypriot films from the 1960s to the 2010s and examines the possible significance of filmic spaces as areas where alternative constructions of female subjectivity and agency could be negotiated. It examines films based on three categories of female subjectivities and women’s agency – or lack thereof: a) women-as-victims of predominant discourses, b) women as (co) perpetrators of predominant discourses and c) women as agents.

This conference took place in London, the 12 September 2018 organized by University of London.

Spain is experiencing one of its greatest political crises of the last decades due to the Catalan independence movement. For months we have witnessed how two opposite discourses are trying to shape public opinion. These two discourses have reached us through traditional media but also through digital media and especially social networks such as Twitter, YouTube or Instagram. Nowadays, each one of us is a potential journalist and our information might even go viral.
In this paper we will precisely analyse two pictures and two videos that went viral and study how these pieces of information contributed to shape the two different discourses that were being held by the contending parties of the Catalonian conflict. One of these images shows a father with his son in his arms, trying to give a flower to a Spanish Guardia Civil during the referendum that had been suspended by Spain ́s Constitutional Court. In the other picture we s ee four kids and a baby blocking the traffic during the pro -independence general s trike. With regard to the videos, one of them was recorded during the time the Spanish Guardia Civil and National Police had been deployed in Catalonia ahead of the illegal referendum on independence for 1st October. One officer from Seville responded to noisy pot-banging from a pro-independence group under the balcony of his hotel singing a fandango (flamenco song) that stopped the pot-banger and elicited a few "Olés" from the protestors. The other video shows us a similar story: in this case a resident from Barcelona tries to stop the noisy pot-banging in his neighbourhood by playing a famous Spanish song "¡Qué viva España!" (Long life to Spain) very loudly.

L’IDEAZIONE DEL PROGETTO DELLA CITTÀ UNIVERSITARIA DI TEHERAN
VICINANZE E LONTANANZE DALL’EUROPA

Durante il primo Novecento iraniano (1905-1940) si assiste a fondamentali cambiamenti culturali e architettonici in Persia, fino ad allora radicata nelle proprie millenarie tradizioni. Mutamenti che ancora oggi identificano ampiamente le tematiche architettoniche e urbanistiche integrate profondamente nell’ideazione formale e progettuale e si presentano ai nostri occhi in forma distintamente riconoscibile, seppur implicitamente tendente verso una conservatività allusiva verso le sue radici consuetudinarie. Radici robuste dei suoi poeti millenari come Firdusi, le antiche religioni e la continuità storica territoriale che origina - per mezzo di prove sicure - la presenza di un popolo antico composto da diversi gruppi etnici e tribali che, nel primo Novecento, mettono in luce propositi di dimostrare e di affermarsi autenticamente fra i paesi del mondo attraverso la cultura, la politica e l’architettura.
La ricerca tende ad analizzare l’architettura del primo Novecento iraniano in relazione ad una comparazione estesa con l’architettura europea.........

Abstract: This paper proposes a notion of critique as a public metadiscourse that allows subjects to recognize , rearticulate and/or reconfigure the logics and rationalities that lead to social suffering. It analyses the way critique operates in a controversy triggered by Flemish nationalist politicians who claim that racism is [a] relative [concept]. The author proposes to analyse the associated debate by means of an in-terpretive and functional discourse analysis. This heuristic operationalizes the poststructuralist concept of articulation. The author identifies different types of critical discursive intervention (CDI) that delin-eate the boundaries of the racism-is-relative debate: hegemonic claims, ideological disqualifications, metalinguistic disqualifications, and concretization strategies. Such interventions haven been articulated by citizens, activists, academics, and politicians across a variety of mostly written media between 2013 and 2015. It is through the play of discursive interventions that social actors challenge and negotiate political boundaries for interpretation. The article demonstrates that most critiques on assertions of racism being [a] relative [concept] do not undermine the logics and rationalities informing racism is relative discourse. It also shows that discourse analysts need to differentiate between different modes of critique in order to examine the complex acts of rearticulation that take place in any debate.

Zusammenfassung: Der folgende Artikel plädiert für einen Kritikbegriff, der Kritik als öffentlichen Meta-Diskurs konzipiert, welches es Subjekten ermöglicht, all jene Logiken und Rationalitäten, die so-ziales Leiden verursachen, zu erkennen, zu re-artikulieren und zu re-konfigurieren. Veranschaulicht wird dies anhand einer Analyse der spezifischen Kritikformen bzw.-modi innerhalb der von flämisch-nationalistischen Politikern initiierten Debatte um die vermeintliche Relativität von Rassismus. Die Analyse dieser Debatte orientiert sich hierbei an einer interpretativen und funktionalen Konzeption der Diskursanalyse. Für diese Analyseheuristik ist eine Operationalisierung des poststrukturalistischen Ar-tikulationskonzepts zentral. Im Zuge der Untersuchung werden verschiedene Arten und Weisen der kritisch-diskursiven Intervention in diese Debatte identifiziert. Dadurch können gleichsam die Grenzen bzw. Grenzmarker der »Rassismus-ist-relativ-Debatte« skizziert werden: hegemoniale Ansprüche, ideo-logische und metalinguistische De-Legitimierungen sowie Konkretisierungsstrategien. Die identifizier-ten kritischen Interventionen wurden von einer Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Akteure (Bürger, Aktivisten, Wissenschaftler und Politiker) innerhalb verschiedenster Medienpublikationen, im Zeitraum zwischen 2013 und 2015, artikuliert. Die Grenzen politischer Interpretationsräume werden von sozialen Akteu-ren durch dieses Spiel diskursiver Interventionen verhandelt und herausgefordert. Der folgende Artikel veranschaulicht, dass die meisten Kritiken der Behauptung, Rassismus sei relativ, die diesem rassisti-schen Diskurs zugrundeliegenden Logiken und Artikulationsformen nicht radikal genug herausfordern bzw. untergraben. Auf theoretischer Ebene sollte er zudem DiskursforscherInnen für die Differenzie-rung spezifischer Kritikmodi sensibilisieren, da nur durch eine solche differenzierende Identifizierung die komplexen Artikulationsformen einer öffentlichen Debatte angemessen analysiert werden können.

Bitva u Mojkovce 1916-2106: narativy o první světové válce v Černé Hoře, In: Václav Štěpánek – Jiří Mitáček (eds.), Studia balkanica Bohemo-slovaca VII. Příspěvky přednesené na VII. mezinárodním balkanistickém sympoziu v Brně ve dnech 28.-29. listopadu 2016, Brno: Moravské zemské muzeum, Ústav slavistiky FF MU 2017,  pp.  257-272.

SUMMARY: "The Battle of Mojkovac, 1916-2016: Narratives of the First World War in Montenegro". The contribution focuses on the narratives of the First World War in Montenegro, their transformations and appropriations. It primarily deals with the memory of the period between the Sarajevo assassination in June 1914 and the occupation of Montenegro by the Austro-Hungarian army in January 1916 researched at the time of the centenary commemorations in 2014-2016. Three events have assumed central position in contemporary narratives: Montenegro´s entry into war in 1914, the battle of Mojkovac (January 1916) and the sinking of the boat Brindisi, carrying Montenegrin volunteers from Northern America (January 1916). During the centenary of these events, the battle of Mojkovac assumed the most prominent position in the politics of memory of the First World War in Montenegro. The narratives of the First World War have been affected by the existence of two competing discourses of national identity and history within Montenegro: the ethnically Montenegrin perspective, stressing the perceived national specificity of the Montenegrins and tradition of independent statehood as opposed to ethnically Serb perspective, stressing the perceived Serb identity of the Montenegrins, the importance of their links with Serbia and adherence to Serbian Orthodox Church. The question of Montenegro´s membership in NATO and strained relations between Podgorica and Moscow also left their imprint on competing narratives of the First World War.

In this study the author analyses the changes of social representations of the Slovak speaking population of the north-western part of the Hungarian Kingdom in the regional Magyar press during the years of the Great War. The article is based on analyses of five Magyar regional newspapers (issued in mainly Slovak inhabited areas), in which the author explores the usage of various categories (such as “people/folk”, “nationality”, “nation”, as well as notions of “loyalty”, “treacherousness”, and “Pan-Slavism”) and stereotypes as they were utilized in the representations of the Slovaks. The analyses follows how the seemingly subtle changes within the predominant Hungarian/Magyar nationalist ideology of the “Hungarian (political) nation” and particular events in the domestic policy and abroad (the policy of limited cooperation with the leaders of of the non/Hungarian nationalist movements pursued by the prime minister I. Tisza on the eve of the World War, and the activities of Czech and Slovak politicians in exile, and of the Czech members of parliament in the Vienna Reichsrat during the last two years of the war) influenced and in fact changed the social representations of the Slovak population within the period Hungarian/Magyar discourse.

Keywords: Social representations. Hungarian/Magyar and Slovak nationalism. Nationalist discourses, Social categories of nation, nationality and people` World War I, 1914 –1918.

Discourse on History and National Identity in Montenegro in the First Decade after ther Renewal of Independence (2006-2016).

The paper focuses on the discourse about history and national identity in Montenegro in the first decade after the re-establishment of independence in 2006. In the first section, the author pays attention to the increased role played by the period of the medieval state of Duklja (10th - 12th century) in the narratives of Montenegrin independence and specificity. The subsequent section represents a short overview of the role of the period of Ottoman rule and Montenegrin attempts to break free from the Ottoman empire from the 17th to the 19th century in contemporary discourses.  Special attention is devoted to the personality of Petar II Petrović Njegoš, Montenegrin ruler and poet from the first half of the 19th century. His central role in Montenegrin narratives of history and identity was repeatedly confirmed during the bicentenary of his birth in 2013. In fact, Njegoš is often presented as an arbiter of identity whose opinions are still relevant, even binding today. In contrast to Njegoš, who is almost universally revered by both ethnic Montenegrins and Serbs, the re-examination of the role of Prince (later King) Nikola I Petrović Njegoš has taken a form of more moderate commemorations and critical discussions which have been markedly less emotional. In the following section dealing with the end of Montenegro´s independence in 1918, the unification with Serbia and the State of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the interwar period, the author has noted that the glorification of armed struggle against the unconditional union with the Yugoslav state has largely obscured the less spectacular but arguably more important developments of the interwar period, when the collective identity of the Montenegrins was first formulated and modern Montenegrin culture was born. In comparison with Serbia and Croatia, the interest in the events of the Second World War is certainly lower in Montenegro. Finally, the author tackles the ambivalent attitude towards the socialist past, which largely remains to be discovered and integrated into the existing “grand narrative” about national history and identity.

The paper attempts to provide an overview of the dispute over the status of the Christian Orthodox Church in Montenegro after the breakup of socialist Yugoslavia and the ongoing struggle of the Serbian and Montenegrin Orthodox churches for power, influence, political support, spiritual hegemony, places of worship and souls.  In the early 1990s, Montenegro joined the group of several predominantly Orthodox countries of Eastern Europe affected by religious schism. In October 1993, hundreds of Montenegrins gathered in the historical capital of Cetinje to proclaim the (re)establishment of an independent, autocephalous Montenegrin Orthodox Church. Since then, the Christian Orthodox population of Montenegro has been polarized by bitter rivalry between the clergy and adherents of two churches: the Serbian Orthodox Church (Srpska pravoslavna crkva, SPC) and the Montenegrin Orthodox Church (Crnogorska pravoslavna crkva, CPC), both competing for legitimacy, influence, political support and property. The roots of this ongoing conflict are inseparable from questions of national identity and politics. While SPC maintains that Montenegrins represent a mere regional branch of the Serb nation and Montenegro therefore one of the traditionally Serb lands, CPC has promoted the program of a separate Montenegrin national identity and strongly supported independence from Serbia before the referendum of 2006.

ABSTRACT
Despite their differences in age, professional career and political background, Milošević and Putin share similar views on one of the main consequences of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the USSR: the involuntary dispersal of Serbs and Russians into different foreign states. This is a study of the segments of Milošević’s and Putin’s speeches referring to Kosovo and to Crimea respectively. The study analyses their rhetorical devices and thematic content, using the analytical framework and instruments for the analysis of nationalist discourses developed by the Vienna School of Critical Discourse Analysis. The speeches, it is argued here, share a topos of sacralisation of the (contested) land based on the ancestors’ holy or glorious deeds which proclaims the land to be sacred to the chosen nation. This creates a ‘national entitlement’ to the land in a depoliticised (‘sacred’) and highly personalised setting.