{"title":"Polyphony of form and ideas in the works of Milan Kundera","authors":"Radomil Novák","doi":"10.1177/00472441231172059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441231172059","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the influence of music on the composition of Milan Kundera’s novels, focusing particularly on how polyphonic thought influences his most recent published novel The Festival of Insignificance. This text exemplifies Kundera’s use of the principles of fugue – a form in which each voice, though independent and equal in status to the other voices, forms an integral part of a complete entity and helps to make meanings. The novel demonstrates an experimental thought process that opens up space for dialogue both within the text and outside it. In general terms, the principle of polyphony in literature is connected with the idea that nothing in the world is entirely unambiguous. It rests on the principle of plurality: there exists no single truth, no single viewpoint or perspective, so any thought or idea always exists in counterpoint with another thought or idea. However, the fact that we can hear more voices does not objectivize or relativize the meaning of a text; instead it creates a genuine polyphony of voices, each of which has equal status, which can exist in various relationships to each other, without any individual voice ever representing the definitive truth. This article also seeks to demonstrate how the polyphonic principle is a phenomenon existing on the boundary-line between music and literature; to do so, it draws on the concept of intermediality. From this perspective, polyphony can be viewed as an intermedia phenomenon, positioned at a point between intermedia reference (in the form of imitation) and transmedialization.","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"53 1","pages":"179 - 197"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45436212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"European movements for confluent love: Revealing romantic delusions with the Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough and Comedy Italian Style","authors":"Mads Larsen","doi":"10.1177/00472441231172055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441231172055","url":null,"abstract":"Differences in Northern and Southern European gender relations have historical roots that can be investigated in the regions’ literature and cinema. The mating morality of romantic love facilitated the West’s First Sexual Revolution of the mid-eighteenth century. The Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough, a late-nineteenth-century literary movement, used Darwinian perspectives to reveal romantic delusions and double standards. The movement’s insights undergirded twentieth-century Nordic gender equality and social democratic governance. Coinciding with the Second Sexual Revolution, the film movement Comedy Italian Style (c. 1958–1979) used psychoanalytical perspectives to promote a similar cultural effect nearly a century later. Both movements contributed to the transition to our present era’s demythologised morality of confluent love, which sacralises gender equality, but the Scandinavians’ head start, evolutionary approach and genre choices partially explain why today’s Nordic women are more empowered than their Italian counterparts. Comparing these movements offers insight into how fiction helps populations transition to new mating moralities.","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"53 1","pages":"132 - 152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42776998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nowhere at ease: Listening to Syrian refugee trauma in Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo (2019)","authors":"A. Yiğit, Melih Kurtuluş","doi":"10.1177/00472441231166786","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441231166786","url":null,"abstract":"The ongoing Syrian civil war has inflicted wounds on the minds and bodies of countless Syrians, and it continues to influence the contemporary global agenda. The purpose of this article is to examine how refugee trauma is depicted at the individual level, and how Syrian refugees attempt to survive it, in Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo (2019). This best-selling novel tells a story of the effects of war by following the lives of a bereaved Syrian couple as they make their way through Turkey and Greece to the United Kingdom. We show how Lefteri’s fictionalised portraits of traumatised refugees coincide with the academic literature on trauma. At the same time, we question the applicability of Eurocentric trauma theory to their cases. We argue that refugee trauma presents itself in distinctive ways and embodies a dynamic texture as a result of refugees’ vulnerability and marginalisation in broader society, which in turn prompts them to employ various coping mechanisms in their struggle for survival.","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"53 1","pages":"284 - 296"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46486647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In memoriam","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/00472441221141213","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441221141213","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135076284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Eliza Ablovatski: Revolution and Political Violence in Central Europe: The Deluge of 1919","authors":"J. Benes","doi":"10.1177/00472441221146636a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441221146636a","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"53 1","pages":"88 - 89"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46475860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Antonia Wimbush: Autofiction: A Female Francophone Aesthetic of Exile","authors":"Kate Averis","doi":"10.1177/00472441221146636c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441221146636c","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"53 1","pages":"92 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43359237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cultural responses to the COVID-19 crisis in Greece: The first wave (March-May 2020).","authors":"Panagiotis Zestanakis","doi":"10.1177/00472441221141957","DOIUrl":"10.1177/00472441221141957","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines cultural responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece during the first wave in spring 2020 approaching such responses not only as resulting from the fear of the virus but also as outcomes of larger historical processes. Analysing media material, surveys and discourses by politicians and health specialists the article argues that although Greece had a limited number of cases, most Greeks embraced the lockdown seeing COVID-19 as a threat. The government's communication strategy highlighted popular values such as family and downplayed the class dimensions of the pandemic. This strategy proved effective and increased the popularity of the government and health experts at that stage.</p>","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"53 1","pages":"70-84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9845843/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44392386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"David A. Harrisville: <i>The Virtuous Wehrmacht: Crafting the Myth of the German Soldier on the Eastern Front, 1941–1944</i>","authors":"Joachim Whaley","doi":"10.1177/00472441221146636e","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441221146636e","url":null,"abstract":"but more weight was delivered by the events of November 1942 and June 1944. Drawing on a broad and impressive range of archival sources, particularly British, but also relevant French and American material, this book possibly suffers from the standard problems of first books, notably a failure to give adequate attention to other factors, including, in this case, the exigencies of alliance politics which were particularly sharp for Vichy in the case of the Germans. Yet Britain, Vichy and even, despite de Gaulle’s efforts, the Free French were also abstractions each pulling in different directions. The great interest of this book extends to Anglo-French rivalries in the Levant and their interaction with Levantic nationalism, which provides a valuable linkage to the post-war situation and notably the tensions of the end of the mandate period. The role of opinion emerges as a key element, which leaves this reader wanting more about other factors. Douglas Porch has produced an excellent study of France at war, the first of an intended two-volume work. Porch sets out to be a revisionist, combatting what he sees as serious misperceptions and a skewed periodisation. In particular, he argues that the 1940 armistice did not transform France into a mere bystander and suffering victim. Instead, he compares France with Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States (he could have added China and Poland) that, after initial blows, sought to reconstruct its military power. That comparison might seem questionable. What Porch repeatedly demonstrates is French agency, although, as he shrewdly notes, this agency owed much to the limitations of others, including the German lack of sufficient forces to garrison all of North Africa. In turn, however, these limitations could be made more complex because the Germans did have troops to send to invade Egypt and, in greater quantities, intervene in Tunisia. The French army, moreover, failed to act against the latter, or, indeed, to resist the invasion of Vichy France, while the navy did not deliver the Toulon fleet as Porch argues they could have done. He would have benefitted in that section from comparisons with Italy in 1943; more generally, one of the few weaknesses in this remarkable book is the lack of an adequate comparative context. Another is the lack of sufficient attention to IndoChina and, in particular, the war with Siam/Thailand and the significant role of IndoChina in relations with Japan and the United States. In contrast, the coverage of Bir Hakeim is excessive. The book includes coverage of such topics as the harsh treatment of Alsace-Lorraine, the development of the Resistance, and the details of the Torch operation. At £27.99 it offers excellent value as well.","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135076282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Riccardo Bernardini: Simboli di rinascita nella Basilica di San Miniato al Monte di Firenze: Da Gioacchino da Fiore a C.G. Jung / Rebirth Symbols in the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte in Florence: From Joachim of Fiore to C.G. Jung","authors":"Paul Bishop","doi":"10.1177/00472441221146636h","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441221146636h","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135076285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rachel Chin: War of Words: Britain, France and Discourses of Empire During the Second World War and Douglas Porch: Defeat and Division: France at War, 1939–42","authors":"Jeremy Black","doi":"10.1177/00472441221146636d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441221146636d","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43875,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES","volume":"53 1","pages":"93 - 94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43645174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}