{"title":"Secularized engagement in architecture. Sieg Vlaeminck’s plea for 'Woonecologie' in 1970s Flanders","authors":"Sebastiaan Loosen, Hilde Heynen","doi":"10.18352/HCM.516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/HCM.516","url":null,"abstract":"During the 1970s the intellectual and cultural climate in Flanders increasingly matured, also in the field of architecture. This fledgling cultural renaissance was fed to a remarkable extent by intellectuals with a religious background who chose to reorient their careers outside the Church. This article focuses on one of those clerics-turned-public intellectuals: sociologist and former Passionist Sieg Vlaeminck (1933-2011), who during the 1970s advocated a scientifically well-founded approach of the built environment, labelled woonecologie. His biography unites (1) a plea for sciences, embodying a trend towards scientification, (2) a public voice acknowledging architecture’s societal relevance and (3) a first-hand witness of and contributor to a growing secularization of religious culture. This paper will trace the transfiguration of Vlaeminck’s religious vocation into an architectural engagement, in order to offer one way of grasping how the architectural culture of the 1970s benefited from the secularization that affected the Catholic Church.","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115033217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Something Borrowed, Something New”: Memory and Oblivion in Food Discourse in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe","authors":"Irina Perianova","doi":"10.18352/hcm.530","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/hcm.530","url":null,"abstract":"The article highlights the discourse of food as it relates to memory and oblivion. Though memory is an ability to store and reproduce infor- mation, frequently individual or even collective reproductions hardly match reality. As an object of longing in reconstructing and reimagining the past to fit real or perceived identity, food is one of the mainstays of nostalgia. Nostalgia is also the reason why an old narrative, when it is refashioned and imported into a new frame as a new narrative, may be of doubtful veracity. As our food memories bridge the chasms of time and space and define not only our eating habits but our identity, the importance of what and how we remember cannot be overstated. The object of the article is threefold. On the basis of the culinary myths of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, it shows how mem- ory traps result in a non-isomorphic perception of reality. Secondly, it describes the transformation of food memories for a diaspora. Finally, it illustrates certain functions of food, such as protest, which may be viewed as a challenge to oblivion.","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126913271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Everyday Life of a European Man: Knausgård's Literary Project as Social Imagination","authors":"O. Heynders","doi":"10.18352/hcm.544","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/hcm.544","url":null,"abstract":"Between 2009 and 2011, Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgard published a monumental novel project in six parts (over 3,500 pages) in which he described the minutiae of daily life: family troubles, ordinary routines, everyday discourse, drinking, strolling through town and so on. The literary project became a media sensation with translations in many languages, readers all over the Western world, and a lot of interviews and reviews to be found online. Why were the books so successful, what is it in them that engages readers? Drawing on theories of sociologist C. Wright Mills and philosopher Henri Lefebvre, this article argues that this ambitious as well as paradoxical literary project sheds light on the social and cultural position of the late modern subject in a European middle class. Knausgard in his self-narration creates an Everyman, while at the same time fashioning a self as an obsessed artist that is everything but ordinary. In a crucial part of the final book, Knausgard shows us Adolf Hitler as a bitter young man, but also as someone ‘whose youth resembles my own’. Here the self-positioning relates to ongoing European history as well as to the lack of historical perspective in our current age.","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126682685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Selfie on Europe’s Shores: Ai Weiwei and the Selfie as a Means of Safe Passage","authors":"Anna Poletti","doi":"10.18352/HCM.546","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/HCM.546","url":null,"abstract":"In the introduction to On Histories and Stories , A. S. Byatt argues that ‘those of us who write about modern writing have a duty to keep the discussion open’ in order ‘to create new paradigms, which will bring new books, new styles, new preoccupations to the attention of readers’. This paper considers how Byatt’s suggestion about the role of the critic writing about living authors can be adapted for scholarship and criticism that seeks to respond to new forms of life writing that have emerged in the digital age.","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"2016 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116967538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Picture Stories. The Rise of the Photoessay in the Weimar Republic","authors":"Anton Holzer","doi":"10.18352/HCM.520","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/HCM.520","url":null,"abstract":"Between the mid-1920s and the early 1930s German photojournalism experienced a profound, far-reaching upheaval. Up until this time, the illustrated mass media had favoured the reproduction of single photos, but during this brief period the photo-essay rose to prominence. Photographs and texts were integrated into a new, complex narrative unity: photoreportage. This article aims to reconstruct the historical conditions under which modern photo-reportage arose during the Weimar Republic. It will also revise certain accepted judgements about the history of photojournalism between the world wars. The development of modern photojournalism has until now been identified almost exclusively with the achievements of individual protagonists, mainly prominent photographers. Although these individuals played an important role in the production process of photoreportage, they were rarely consulted regarding editorial questions and layout. In order to better understand the economic development of photoreportage and its growth as a medium, it is necessary to examine the editorial work being done behind the scenes at the magazines and newspapers of the time. This article will therefore focus more on the development of the media and economic macrostructures at play in the emergence and growth of photo-reportage, and less on individual photographers’ contributions and photojournalistic output. It ultimately shows that the consolidation of modern photo-reportage was the result of closely connected media-related and social developments, commercial strategies and aesthetic decisions that went far beyond the agency of individuals.","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131853990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Force of American Modernity: World War II and the Birth of a Soft Power Superpower","authors":"D. Ellwood","doi":"10.18352/HCM.548","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/HCM.548","url":null,"abstract":"As the result of a wide debate in the US during WWII on the causes of that war, the American governing class decided that the best way to avoid yet another conflict was to export the American understanding of the link between economic progress under capitalism and the survival of liberal democracy. The Marshall Plan was the fullest expression of this world-view, launching the era of productivity and growth in Europe. But this project, renewed ideologically in the era of ‘globalisation’, began to meet increased resistance by the 1990s, as societies everywhere looked at its effects on their traditional conceptions of modernity, sovereignty and identity. While American capitalism continued to propose innovations large and small, in Europe and elsewhere their disruptive effects could set off intense political conflict. The classic example is the Uber car-sharing company.","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"13 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123305692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fascism Comes to America","authors":"B. Kuklick","doi":"10.18352/HCM.547","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/HCM.547","url":null,"abstract":"For almost a century, American politicians and social commentator, trailed by novelists, Hollywood movie makers and television producers have agonized about the menace of fascism, and its ability to corrupt the United States’ constitutional republic, supposedly moderate, strong, and firm. Four facets of this huge set of issues are called to the attention of readers: the creation of the understanding of fascism in 1939–1941; the connection between political crises and their renderings in popular culture; the contribution of European scholars to the conventional conceptual framework; and an exploration of the penchant of American scholars for the notion.","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115192148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fleshy stories. New Materialism and Female Suicides in Late Nineteenth-Century Finland","authors":"A. Salmela","doi":"10.18352/HCM.545","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/HCM.545","url":null,"abstract":"In the nineteenth-century western medicine suicide was a gendered phenomenon. Female suicides were linked to emotion, whereas the male ones were seen as social acts, reflecting the state of the national economy and social wellbeing. Concentrating on late nineteenth-century Finnish female suicides, this article offers a new perspective on the medical history of suicides: firstly, it utilizes an underused source type, the post-mortems of suicides, and, secondly, it develops a methodology inspired by Karen Barad’s agential realism. While recognizing the gendered and cultural dimensions of suicide, I argue that female suicides included factors even beyond the human. Hence, the article suggests that suicide was neither a human nor a discursive phenomenon but an entanglement of multiple agencies, including human and nonhuman, matter and discourse.","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126698915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Material Culture of Parliament. A case study of the Dutch Second Chamber, 1945–2000","authors":"Carla Hoetink, Harm Kaal","doi":"10.18352/hcm.538","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/hcm.538","url":null,"abstract":"If parliament is anything, it is an institution where speech acts define politics. It should therefore come as no surprise that political historians have devoted most of their attention to parliamentary debate and decision-making, whereas the materiality of parliamentary debate has only recently entered their purview. Building on these recent approaches, this article offers an analysis of the material culture of the Dutch parliament in the post-war years. Three angles of materiality are explored: the building in which the Second Chamber houses; the objects present in plenary hall; and finally, the objects used as ‘props’ in parliamentary performances. Through the use of the notion of ‘performances’ or ‘practices’ of speaking, debating and acting in parliament, the aim is to acquire a better grasp of how these ‘things’ have impinged on political communication.","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128260739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Modernity evolving? : Problems and prospects of a Darwinian theory of culture","authors":"S. Hofhuis","doi":"10.18352/hcm.542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18352/hcm.542","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":227091,"journal":{"name":"International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128955512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}