Academic literature on the topic 'Culture memory'

There is a stock argument on whether Iraq is an “artificial” creation of colonial power or a “real” entity with historical and psychological depth and identity. It is a futile question because all nation–states, in one form or another, are historical creations. The processes of their creation are diverse and lead to different outcomes in the degree of coherence and permanence. Our thinking on the subject has been highly influenced by the seminal concepts advanced by Benedict Anderson on the “imagining” of the nation, which is, in turn, underlined by the socioeconomic processes of modernity. The state, often superimposed from above, is a principal actor in this process. Educational systems, tied to qualifications and employment, for instance, are powerful means of enforcing a unified national language and, in turn, the medium of literacy, the press and media, and the means of imagining the nation. The state makes the nation, more or less successfully. The intelligentsia are the cadres of these processes. They and the state class, with which they overlap, are subject to the vagaries of political conflicts and struggles and, in the case of Middle Eastern states, to the repression and violence of the state and militant sectors of the population. In the case of Iraq these troublesome manifestations are particularly evident. The books under review are concerned with these processes and in particular with the role of the ideological cadres and institutions in their unfolding.

The revised publication (<i>Muzeum w kulturze pamięci Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów. Antologia najwcześniejszych tekstów</i> [Museum in Memory Culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Anthology of the Earliest Texts], Vol. 1: <i>1766–1882</i>, Vol. 2: <i>1882–1917</i>, eds. Tomasz F. de Rosset, Michał F. Woźniak, Ewelina Bednarz Doiczmanowa, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń 2020), prepared as part of the research project financed with a grant from the National Programme of the Development of Humanities, constitutes a valuable example of primary source analyses which form grounds for the reflection on the history of Polish museology, particularly during Poland’s partitions, consistently leading to its synthesis. The publication is a precious reading supporting the research programme and the curriculum in disciplines related to museology and preservation of cultural heritage.

Nationalist narratives in Bosnia and Herzegovina generate organized hypocrisy against the culture of memory which involves different protagonists of this society. The real name of the culture of memory of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the culture of denial. This is the very structure of its culture. By examining the perpetuation of memory into organized oblivion as a particular form of structural and cultural violence, the author will establish scholarly and axiological criteria in favor of the creation of conditions to end the culture of oblivion. In contrast to the ontology of oblivion, as an instrument of the culture of denial, this article affirms Emmanuel Levinas’s principle of the responsibility for the Other, as a relationship of pure holiness, as an a priori ethical requirement. Also, to reinforce the argument in favor of a responsible culture of memory in the face of its ideological stagnation, the author also examined critical objection to culture of memory by radical left intellectuals, in whose view culture of memory inhibits emancipation of the oppressed class. Although such argumentation should not be dismissed outright, it dances around the reality of post-conflict communities like Bosnia and Herzegovina, where war victims cry for justice, and hold it as important as their very existence.

Abstract This paper explores strategies for constructing and perpetuating cultural memory through music videos, using Beyonce’s Formation (2016) and Janelle Monae’s Many Moons (2008) and Q.U.E.E.N. (2013) as case studies. The medium’s idiosyncrasies create unique ways of communicating and remembering, explored here within a framework of Cultural Studies and Memory Studies. Easy dissemination and the limited length of most videos ensure a large, diverse audience. The relative freedom from narrative constraints enables the director to create original imagery, and most importantly, the medium allows an intricate blending of performance and performativity; while the videos evidently are performances, they are strongly performative as well, not only with respect to gender and ethnicity but in significant ways also cultural memory. A close reading of Beyonce’s video Formation shows how she explicitly does the cultural memory of the New Orleans flooding. The videos by Monae are shown to produce counter-memories, relying heavily on the strategy of Afrofuturism. As such, these densely woven networks of visual symbols become palimpsests of black lived experience and cultural memory, passed on to millions of viewers.

This doctoral thesis examines literary representations of the Holocaust by Saul Bellow, Thomas Pynchon and Paul Auster, and maps the relation between memory and narrative elicited from literature onto American museums, memorials and monuments. This research argues that the ramifications of the trauma originally felt by Holocaust witnesses resonate in the American collective memory, and its literary and architectural forms, that seeks to remember on behalf of those witnesses. The consequent traumatic disruption of literary and architectural narratives can be identified, using various appropriated psychoanalytical concepts, and Holocaust memory traced as it eludes, and irrupts in, the cultural forms that try to remember it. Establishing the dynamics of collective memory allows the cultural significance of Holocaust remembrance to be investigated, especially in relation to the memories and ethnic identities of survivors that are subsumed by an Americanised version of the past. By way of a conclusion, although this thesis points to the problematisation of historical representation, it also challenges notions of the Holocaust's unrepresentability common to much postmodern thought. It searches for a methodology of memorialisation or at least identifies where blocks to mourning could be removed from the American cultural landscape.

One way of remembering life as it was lived in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) is through everyday objects. This thesis looks at the Alltagsgeschichte (history of everyday life) to understand the interaction between the East German state and society through material culture. Museums have collected East German material objects and popular culture with the help of the internet and television has assisted to both preserve and re-imagine the memories of the past. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the cultural and economic significance of material culture of the German Democratic Republic both before and after 1989. It seeks to understand, how and why ex-GDR consumer objects have emerged as new historical markers of the socialist experience and collective memory. Additionally, the thesis explores whether East Germany, a socialist country that was despised for its poor quality and quantity of consumer goods can be remembered after the fall of the Berlin Wall as a genuine consumer society. While the GDR no longer exists, its legacy is still very much alive in the renewal and revival of a number of significant material objects. It has even manifested itself into what is called Ostalgie, nostalgia for all things from the former GDR, including such items as the Trabant (an East German car), the Ampelmannchen (traffic light figure) and Florena body lotion.
Arts, Faculty of
Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of
Graduate

This study explores how Chinese ancient cultural memory is constructed, and specifically how it is reconstructed through Chinese Xianxia TV dramas during the past five years. Ancient Chinese culture has become a hit in Chinese popular culture today, in which Xianxia TV dramas draw the biggest audiences. This study focuses on the ways, namely the transformations between cultural memory as storage memory to cultural memory as living functional memory, in which the Xianxia genre reconstructs the past. Bringing together a ritual view of communication, cultural memory and participatory culture, it applies a cultural approach to communication, which refers to the production and the fandom reception of Xianxia TV drama. Meanwhile, the perspective of culture industry provides a critical dimension to look into this highly commercial genre. This study is based on the analysis of content and representations of the theme song lyrics, posters and the general narratives of six selected Xianxia TV dramas, as well as a virtual ethnography of fan-generated videos and their comments. The findings suggest that, the reconstruction of ancient Chinese cultural memory in Xianxia TV dramas is a complex interplay between the culture industry logics of Xianxia production and the passionate participatory fan culture. The limited representations of the past in the series are absorbed and practiced by the fan audiences. Through fan practices, the fans extend the media text with their passion and knowledge of ancient culture, attaching the cultural memory into their present real-life cultural identity and hence vigorously transforming cultural memory from storage memory into functional memory.  This study speaks to the lack of bottom-up perspectives in the studies of the ancient culture revival trend in China, and it contributes to a deeper scholarly understanding of the Xianxia genre.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
No final do século XIX e início do século XX, os bairros da Saúde, Gamboa, Santo Cristo, num prolongamento que alcançava a Praça Onze e o Estácio, ficaram conhecidos como Pequena África. O Largo de São Francisco da Prainha, na base do Morro da Conceição, Saúde, era um ponto de encontro para a população negra, ex-escravos oriundos do interior do Rio e também da Bahia, que ali reverenciavam suas divindades, cantando e dançando ao som de palmas e tambores, na manifestação da sua cultura, a qual jamais permitiram que se perdesse. Na subida do Morro da Conceição, um caminho com degraus escavados na pedra: a Pedra do Sal. Apesar do desconhecimento de muitos cariocas, hoje, reconhecida como monumento histórico, a Pedra recebe todos os dias, visitantes de vários lugares do Brasil e do exterior, por conta da história que a cerca, e para as rodas de samba que lá se realizam. Qual uma manutenção do que já era praticado há mais de cem anos ali, o samba tem naquele espaço um convite a quem busca, na palma da mão, bebê-lo na fonte. Basta, para isto, que antes se encontre o caminho da Pedra.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the districts of Saúde, Gamboa and Santo Cristo, from Praça Onze to Estácio were well-known as Little Africa. Largo de São Francisco da Prainha in the bottom of Conceição Hill in Saúde, was a meeting point for the black people, ex-slaves from the countryside of Rio and from Bahia, where they worshipped their gods by singing and dancing to the sounds of claps and tamborins, manifesting their culture which they never allowed to disappear. The way up to Conceição Hill, a path which steps were sculpted on the stone called, Pedra do Sal. Although unknown by many cariocas, but today acknowledged as a historical monument, the place is visited every day by many people from other parts of Brazil and from abroad because of the history of the place and the circles of samba that take place there. Keeping things the way they have been done for over a hundred years, the samba is in that place, an invitation to those who seek to drink it from the very fountain of it. And for that, you have just to find the Pedra path.

Thesis advisor: James M. O'Toole
This dissertation examines the ways in which Catholics, Mormons, Pentecostals, Lutherans, and Congregationalists repositioned themselves in American life and culture during the Progressive Era. Between 1890 and 1920, the place of these religious communities in American society became less secure as faith and religious practice became increasingly individualized. In response, churches reasserted their place in American society through deliberate reconstructions of the past to recreate their religious and historical identity. Through pageants, parades, poetry, and orations, they publicly displayed and celebrated their place in America and their contributions to the making of the nation. Specifically, they argued that religion and national progress went hand in hand. Progress needed religion. As such, the clerical and lay members of these communities constructed collective religious memories that strayed from historical reality in order to reinforce present needs and concerns. Perpetuating these often times misleading memories helped them to navigate the murky waters of modernity including theological change, societal prejudice, industrialization, and war by supplying them with the space to sustain the cultural legitimacy of their community. By examining religious experience via the lens of memory this dissertation illustrates how religious communities pursued an active role in America at a time when society increasingly disregarded the relevance of religion
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: History

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2006.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1490. Adviser: Jeffrey L. Gould. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 7, 2007)."

In 1991, a diplomatic controversy arose between Greece and the newly independent Republic of Macedonia, regarding naming, minority rights and the use of historical symbols. The claims of the new state to the name Macedonia and the historical heritage associated with it were perceived as a threat against Greek national identity and history itself. Within months, the so-called Macedonian question came to dominate the Greek domestic and foreign policy agenda. In Greek public debate, the conflict blended with concerns about the nation’s past, present and future, which played into the challenges brought about by the end of the Cold War. The Macedonian conflict can thus be understood as symptomatic of a crisis in Greek historical culture, as well as a catalyst for broader concerns about the role of history in contemporary society. This study explores the contexts in which the conflict evolved and how history was perceived, narrated and used by institutions, communities and individuals who sought to influence public opinion and policy-makers. The theoretical point of departure is the concept of historical culture, defined as the totality of discourses through which a society makes sense of itself, the present and the future through the interpretation of the past. In the study of historical culture, the notions of narratives and uses of history have been employed, with the notion of boundary-work as a supplementing analytical tool. The material of the study is primarily drawn from mainstream press, but also includes historiography. The study shows how the Macedonian controversy was intertwined with the identity- and memory-political demands of substate actors. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of a narrative on genocide among Greeks of Pontian origins. This happened in an age when traditional notions of national pride were being challenged by transnational history-cultural concerns about human rights and the notion of national guilt. The study also sheds light on how academic historians dealt with issues brought about by demands for politically committed scholarship, objectivity, legitimacy and the need to adjust in a transnational setting.
Denna studie har sin utgångspunkt i de utmaningar som det grekiska samhället och nationalstaten stod inför vid kalla krigets slut. I fokus står den diplomatiska konflikten mellan Grekland och republiken Makedonien, gällande den senare partens namn och bruk av historiskt laddade symboler samt minoritetsrättigheter. Denna makedonska konflikt som seglade upp i samband med Jugoslaviens sammanbrott kom att dominera den in- och utrikespolitiska dagordningen i Grekland under det tidiga 1990-talet, och förde tidvis in landet på kollisionskurs med dess västeuropeiska och amerikanska partners. Avhandlingens syfte har bestått i att spåra de sammanhang som denna konflikt växte fram i. Jag hävdar att den makedonska konflikten inte endast skall förstås som en kris i grekisk inrikespolitik, eller i landets relationer med omvärlden, utan fastmer som en kris i den grekiska historiekulturen. I det offentliga samtalet i Grekland smälte konflikten samman med en oro gällande nationens förflutna, nutid och framtid. Den diplomatiska fejden med den nya grannstaten i norr uppmärksammades av en bred allmänhet och åtföljdes av en diskurs som utmålade den egna nationens historia och arv som hotade. Studiet av denna diskurs, eller rättare sagt diskurser, om historia är ett viktigt mål i denna avhandling, eftersom det belyser uppfattningar om det förflutna jämte farhågor rörande nuet och nationens framtid, uppfattningar och farhågor som ytterst präglade den politiska krisen. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för studien återfinns i begreppet historiekultur. Med detta avses de samtliga diskurser genom vilka ett samhälle begripliggör sig självt, nuet och framtiden genom att tolka det förflutna. Sålunda definierad skall historiekultur förstås som både struktur och process. Det innebär att historiekulturen är både ramverket av kunskap, attityder och värderingar som ger den enskilde mening och sammanhang, och samhällen deras sammanhållning, och själva handlingen genom vilka ovansagda skapas och förmedlas. Som redskap för att studera historiekultur har begreppen berättelser och historiebruk använts. Eftersom studien särskilt uppmärksammar fackhistorikers roll i konflikten – viktiga i egenskap av aktörer som skapar och sprider den kunskap och de värderingar som utgör historiekultur – har även ett vetenskapssociologiskt perspektiv infogats. Offentliga kontroverser rörande det förflutna inbegriper kamp om trovärdigheten i vissa tolkningar liksom hos dem som framför dem. Som kompletterande analysredskap brukas begreppet gränsdragning (boundary-work), utifrån uppfattningen att vetenskapen bör studeras i det sociala sammanhang i vilket den bibringas mening och auktoritet. Historiekultur studeras genom dess lämningar. I föreliggande avhandling utgörs källmaterialet främst av artiklar i grekisk dagspress, men även historieskrivning (akademisk såväl som icke-akademisk) i bokform, vetenskapliga tidskrifter och andra relevanta trycksaker där historia debatteras, berättas, sätts in i sammanhang och brukas, har studerats. Materialet täcker ingalunda grekisk historiekultur i hela dess vidd men utgör likväl ett representativt urval av de arenor där såväl allmänhet som specialister mötte diskurser och debatter om det förflutna. 324 Studien har kartlagt de sätt på vilka historia brukades med särskilt avseende på de intressen som kan skönjas däri. Själva upplevelsen av kris tog sig uttryck i ett existentiellt historiebruk, kopplats till ett sökande efter rötter och kontinuitet som närdes av fruktan för krig, rotlöshet och kulturell minnesförlust. Det upplevda yttre hotet mot Grekland beskrevs ofta i termer av en hotande utmaning gentemot den nationella identiteten och nationens överlevnad, men också som en möjlighet att återupprätta en samlande nationell berättelse. Samtidigt brukades historia med både kommersiella och politiska mål i sikte, eftersom det nationella förflutna sågs som en moralisk, politisk och ekonomisk tillgång. Ett framträdande drag i debatten var ett politiskt historiebruk som syftade till att utmana en upplevd vänsterhegemoni som utmålades som ett hinder för nationell enighet och främjandet av Greklands utrikespolitiska målsättningar i utlandet. Men historia kunde även brukas politiskt för att visa på nationalismens avarter. Särskild uppmärksamhet har ägnats åt det moraliska historiebruket. Detta är ett bruk som utmanar vad som utpekas som förhärskande föreställningar och därför är ett medel för historiekulturens förändring. Historieproducenter längs med den politiska skalan tenderade att utforma sina berättelser i kritisk och moralistisk anda, även om syftet ofta var att bevara en traditionell förståelse av nationell historia och identitet. Emellertid är det berättelser som utmanar den nationella tolkningsramen som undersökts särskilt noggrant. Det moraliska historiebruket hänger samman med hur den makedonska frågan nyttjades till att främja minnespolitiska krav. I detta sammanhang har särskild uppmärksamhet riktats mot den slaviskmakedonska minoritetsaktivismen som prisade etnisk särart och anklagade den grekiska staten för diskriminering. Dess historiebruk underblåste föreställningar om ett överhängande hot mot den grekiska nationalstaten och tilltalade som sådant också grupperingar inom den grekiska vänstern, som i den slaviskmakedonska kritiska berättelsen såg ett medel till förändring av rådande samhällsordning och den nationella historiekulturen, genom att blottlägga statens ”ideologiska historiebruk”. En grupp som brukade historien moraliskt och som i viss utsträckning även länkade sin minnespolitiska dagordning till den makedonska frågan återfanns bland de pontiska grekerna. Studien har belyst hur en pontisk identitet knuten till en berättelse om folkmord i Turkiet och en historia av diskriminering i Grekland växte fram i senare delen av 1980-talet och erkändes av staten 1994. Medan kapitel 3 utforskar det lokala historiekulturella landskapet i det grekiska Makedonien, belyser kapitel 4 även de förbindelser som pontiska aktivister sökte upprätta med historiska berättelser utanför den nationella historiens ramverk, huvudsakligen det armeniska folkmordet och förintelsen. Förhållandet mellan politik och historia, mellan kritiska berättelser som utmanade förhärskande uppfattningar i nationella frågor och dem som försvarade den förda politikens legitimitet och den officiella historieskrivningen, står i fokus för kapitel 5. Den makedonska konflikten medförde kolliderande anspråk på expertis inom vetenskapssamhället – mellan ämnesdiscipliner och enskilda forskare – såväl som mellan fackmän och lekmän, vilket tog sig uttryck i retoriska 325 uteslutningsmekanismer. För somliga bar den allmänna betoningen av nationell historia ett löfte med sig om finansiering och förstärkt prestige åt dem som hade denna inriktning. Andra uppfattade den makedonska krisen och historieskrivning med nationella och politiska förtecken som ett direkt hot mot den fria forskningen och Greklands överlevnad som ett demokratiskt samhälle. Den akademiska autonomin som föreföll hotad skyddades genom att insistera på en skiljelinje mellan historia som vetenskap respektive som ”ideologiskt bruk” för politiska ändamål. Detta försök att återupprätta konsensus inom vetenskapssamhället genom att vädja till professionens etiska principer blev också en utväg för historiker som med tiden sökte distansera sig från en förd politik som uppfattades som skamfilad och nationalistisk. Analysen har visat på de sammanhang i vilka den makedonska krisen växte fram och hur farhågorna för och bruket av historia kan förstås. Den första av dessa kontexter är den inrikespolitiska, närmare bestämt det grekiska samhällets demokratisering efter 1974. I det nya pluralistiska klimatet införlivades delar av den tidigare förföljda vänsterns kritiska berättelse om det nära förflutna i statens historieskrivning. Övergången från ett auktoritärt samhälle och historiekultur till en ökad öppenhet banade även väg för missnöjda gruppers identitetspolitik (slaviska makedoner, pontiska och andra anatoliska greker), grupper vars historiebruk naggade de gamla nationella och ideologiska stora berättelserna i kanten. Vid tiden för kalla krigets slut 1989 hade en allmänt spridd besvikelse gentemot de politiska ideologierna, i synnerhet socialismen, medfört en motreaktion till förmån för en mer traditionell nationalism. Det andra betydelsefulla sammanhanget återfinns i den europeiska integrationen som följde på Greklands EG-inträde 1981. Denna medförde inte endast hopp om ekonomisk vinning utan även behovet att bearbeta förlusten av nationellt självbestämmande och traditionella former av självförståelse. Grekland stod inför uppgiften att finna sin plats i det nya Europa, samtidigt som landet måste hantera den nya verklighet som 1990-talets krig på Balkan medförde. Särskilt historiker betonade att denna process gjorde det nödvändigt att europeisera nationens värderingar och uppfattningar kring historia, en uppgift som försvårades av Greklands hållning i den makedonska frågan och det sätt på vilket man slog vakt om ”historiska rättigheter”. Även aktivister som, huvudsakligen i den grekiska diasporan, var sysselsatta med att marknadsföra denna fråga pekade på behovet av att modernisera aspekter av den nationella historiekulturen i en tid av europeiskt enande och konvergerande historieutbildningar. Det som ovan beskrivits har ett nära samband med det tredje stora sammanhanget, som även det är av transnationell art. Den nationella historiekulturen är inte avskild från omvärlden; föreställningar om det förflutna rör sig över nationella gränser. På global nivå sammanföll den makedonska konflikten med de s.k. history wars, historiekrig som rasade vid samma tid runtom i världen. Dessa återspeglar i sin tur urholkandet av de stora nationella och ideologiska berättelserna i västerländska samhällen, de identitets- och minnespolitiska kraven hos under- och ickestatliga aktörer, de mänskliga rättigheternas paradigm och 326 beklagandets politik (the politics of regret), som anammar nationell skuld som ny princip för politisk legitimitet. Trenden inom transnationell historiekultur mot en mer universell moral, symboliserad av den ”amerikaniserade” (och ”europeiserade”) förintelsens moral innebar en ytterligare utmaning mot de nationella historiekulturerna. Den pontiska folkmordsberättelsen (och dess nationaliserade förlängning) analyseras som svarande till kravet på en ”amerikanisering” av grekisk historiekultur. I detta sammanhang lyfts den grekiska diasporans roll fram, inte endast som instrumentell i utformningen av Greklands utrikespolitiska dagordning, men även i egenskap av förmedlare av historiekulturella angelägenheter och behovet av anpassning till transnationell omgivning. Konsekvenser av denna ”amerikaniserade” folkmordsberättelse diskuteras. Ett fjärde sammanhang, med en både nationell och transnationell dimension, är det akademiska, inom vilket forskare debatter och formar historiens representation. Identitetspolitikens ankomst och den makedonska konflikten stod även i samband med den objektivistiska historieskrivningens legitimitetskris och den postmoderna utmaningen. Urholkningen av staters bärande historieberättelse och tolkningsföreträde motsvarades i viss utsträckning av ett undergrävt förtroende för den traditionella historieskrivningens trovärdighet och auktoritet. Denna urholkning kunde tolkas som ett hot mot själva historievetenskapen och professionen. Ett annat sätt att bemöta detta hot var att betrakta såväl det som den makedonska krisen som en uppfordran till perspektivskifte inom forskning och historieskrivning. Samspelet mellan politik och historia, mellan förståelsen av svunna realiteter, nutida bekymmer och förväntningar inför framtiden formade sålunda den politiska krisen och banade väg för den grekiska historiekulturens förändring.

The article is devoted to the study of social memory as a special way of preserving the value-semantic field of culture. The article examines the cultural and historical landscape of social memory, its difference from historical memory, and concludes that in postmodern society there is a natural process of reconstruction-reactivation – recategorization of the content of social memory. It is suggested that this process, being natural and historically determined, nevertheless needs constant adjustments in order to objectively understand its content.

The constant change of the meaning of the physical environment for the individual and society during the experience of space in daily life detract the spatial perception from cultural values. The formation of valuable / important perception regarding the physical space elements that are disconnected from the interaction of space, society and culture causes place attachment status to change and negatively affects the preservation of cultural heritage values. In other words, it increases the problem of preserving cultural heritage values by losing the meaning of cultural values that are a part of the physical environment in the relationship between space and society. In this context, in Beşiktaş, which has been settled for many years and has traces of different cultures, as a result of the differentiation of the relationship between the space and the individual due to technological and economic developments, the interaction with cultural values is gradually decreasing during the experience of space. In this study, using the questionnaire method, the status of place attachment is examined through interviews with daily users of Beşiktaş by using open-ended and 5-likert scale questions. The aim of the research is to analyze the cultural heritage values in the context of the relationship between society and space in Besiktas.

Exile is one of the central motifs of the 20th century European culture and literature; it is closely related to the historical events throughout this century and especially those related to World War II. In the culture of East Central Europe, the phenomenon of exile has been greatly determined by the context of socialism and post-socialist transformations that caused several waves of emigration from this part of Europe to the West or other parts of the world. It is interesting to compare cultures of East Central Europe, the historical situations of which both during World War II and after the collapse of socialism were different, e.g. Latvian and ex-Yugoslavian ones. In Latvia, exile is basically related to the emigration of a great part of the population in the 1940s and the issue of their possible return to the renewed Republic of Latvia in the early 1990s, whereas the countries of the former Yugoslavia experienced a new wave of emigration as a result of the Balkan War in the 1990s. Exile has been regarded by a great number of the 20th century philosophers, theorists, and scholars of diverse branches of studies. An important aspect of this complex phenomenon has been studied by psychoanalytical theorists. According to the French poststructuralist feminist theorist Julia Kristeva, the state of exile as a socio-cultural phenomenon reflects the inner schisms of subjectivity, particularly those of a feminine subject. Hence, exile/stranger/foreigner is an essential model of the contemporary subject and exile turns from a particular geographical and political phenomenon into a major symbol of modern European culture. The present article regards the sense of exile as a part of the narrator’s subjective world experience in the works by the Yugoslav writer Dubravka Ugrešič (“The Museum of Unconditional Surrender”, in Croatian and English, 1996) and Latvian émigré author Margita Gūtmane (“Letters to Mother”, in Latvian, 1998). Both authors relate the sense of exile to identity problems, personal and culture memory as well as loss. The article focuses on the issues of loss and memory as essential elements of the narrative of exile revealed by the metaphors of photograph and museum. Notwithstanding the differences of their historical situations, exile as the subjective experience reveals similar features in both authors’ works. However, different artistic means are used in both authors’ texts to depict it. Hence, Dubravka Ugrešič uses irony, whereas Margita Gūtmane provides a melancholic narrative of confession; both authors use photographs to depict various aspects of memory dynamic, but Gūtmane primarily deals with private memory, while Ugrešič regards also issues of cultural memory. The sense of exile in both authors’ works appears to mark specific aspects of feminine subjectivity.

The main recommendations of the panel report can be summarised under five key headings. Underpinning all five areas is the recognition that human narratives remain crucial for ensuring the widest access to our shared past. There is no wish to see political and economic narratives abandoned but the need is recognised for there to be an expansion to more social narratives to fully explore the potential of the diverse evidence base. The questions that can be asked are here framed in a national context but they need to be supported and improved a) by the development of regional research frameworks, and b) by an enhanced study of Scotland’s international context through time. 1. From North Britain to the Idea of Scotland: Understanding why, where and how ‘Scotland’ emerges provides a focal point of research. Investigating state formation requires work from Medieval Scotland: a future for its past ii a variety of sources, exploring the relationships between centres of consumption - royal, ecclesiastical and urban - and their hinterlands. Working from site-specific work to regional analysis, researchers can explore how what would become ‘Scotland’ came to be, and whence sprang its inspiration. 2. Lifestyles and Living Spaces: Holistic approaches to exploring medieval settlement should be promoted, combining landscape studies with artefactual, environmental, and documentary work. Understanding the role of individual sites within wider local, regional and national settlement systems should be promoted, and chronological frameworks developed to chart the changing nature of Medieval settlement. 3. Mentalities: The holistic understanding of medieval belief (particularly, but not exclusively, in its early medieval or early historic phase) needs to broaden its contextual understanding with reference to prehistoric or inherited belief systems and frames of reference. Collaborative approaches should draw on international parallels and analogues in pursuit of defining and contrasting local or regional belief systems through integrated studies of portable material culture, monumentality and landscape. 4. Empowerment: Revisiting museum collections and renewing the study of newly retrieved artefacts is vital to a broader understanding of the dynamics of writing within society. Text needs to be seen less as a metaphor and more as a technological and social innovation in material culture which will help the understanding of it as an experienced, imaginatively rich reality of life. In archaeological terms, the study of the relatively neglected cultural areas of sensory perception, memory, learning and play needs to be promoted to enrich the understanding of past social behaviours. 5. Parameters: Multi-disciplinary, collaborative, and cross-sector approaches should be encouraged in order to release the research potential of all sectors of archaeology. Creative solutions should be sought to the challenges of transmitting the importance of archaeological work and conserving the resource for current and future research.

The subject of the study is the cooperation of S. Efremov with Western Ukrainian periodicals as a page in the history of Ukrainian journalism which covers the relationship of journalists and scientists of Eastern and Western Ukraine at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Research methods (biographical, historical, comparative, axiological, statistical, discursive) develop the comprehensive disclosure of the article. As a result of scientific research, the origins of Ukrainocentrism in the personality of S. Efremov were clarified; his person as a public figure, journalist, publisher, literary critic is multifaceted; taking into account the specifics of the memoir genre and with the involvement of the historical context, the turning points in the destiny of the author of memoirs are interpreted, revealing cooperation with Western Ukrainian magazines and newspapers. The publications ‘Zoria’, ‘Narod’, ‘Pravda’, ‘Bukovyna’, ‘Dzvinok’, are secretly got into sub-Russian Ukraine, became for S. Efremov a spiritual basis in understanding the specifics of the national (Ukrainian) mass media, ideas of education in culture of Ukraine at the end of XIX century, its territorial integrity, and state independence. Memoirs of S. Efremov on cooperation with the iconic Galician journals ‘Notes of the Scientific Society after the name Shevchenko’ and ‘Literary-Scientific Bulletin’, testify to an important stage in the formation of the author’s worldview, the expansion of the genre boundaries of his journalism, active development as a literary critic. S. Yefremov collaborated most fruitfully and for a long time with the Literary-Scientific Bulletin, and he was impressed by the democratic position of this publication. The author’s comments reveal a long-running controversy over the publication of a review of the new edition of Kobzar and thematically related discussions around his other literary criticism, in which the talent of the demanding critic was forged. S. Efremov steadfastly defended the main principles of literary criticism: objectivity and freedom of author’s thought. The names of the allies of the Ukrainian idea L. Skochkovskyi, O. Lototskyi, O. Konyskyi, P. Zhytskyi, M. Hrushevskyi in S. Efremov’s memoirs unfold in multifaceted portrait descriptions and function as historical and cultural facts that document the pages of the author’s biography, record his activities in space and time. The results of the study give grounds to characterize S. Efremov as the first professional Ukrainian-speaking journalist.

We chose to focus our investigations on the effect of the active forms, TTF and AcA, rather than the whole (crude) extract. 1. To establish cultivation program designed to develop lead cultivar/s (which will be selected from the different Af accessions) with the highest yield of the active compounds TTF and/or achillolide A (AcA). These cultivar/s will be the source for the purification of large amounts of the active compounds when needed in the future for functional foods/drug development. This task was completed. 2. To determine the effect of the Af extract, TTF and AcA on neuronal vulnerability to oxidative stress in cultured neurons expressing FAD-linked mutants.Compounds were tested in N2a neuroblastoma cell line. In addition, we have tested the effects of TTF and AcA on signaling events promoted by H₂O₂ in astrocytes and by β-amyloid in neuronal N2a cells. 3. To determine the effect of the Af extract, TTF and AcA on neuropathology (amyloidosis and tau phosphorylation) in cultured neurons expressing FAD-linked mutants. 4. To determine the effect of A¦ extract, AcA and TTF on FAD-linked neuropathology (amyloidosis, tau phosphorylation and inflammation) in transgenic mice. 5. To examine whether A¦ extract, TTF and AcA can reverse behavioral deficits in APPswe/PS1DE9 mice, and affect learning and memory and cognitive performance in these FAD-linked transgenic mice. Background to the topic.Neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, glutamate toxicity and amyloid beta (Ab) toxicity are involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's diseases. We have previously purified from Achilleafragrantissimatwo active compounds: a protective flavonoid named 3,5,4’-trihydroxy-6,7,3’-trimethoxyflavone (TTF, Fl-72/2) and an anti-inflammatory sesquiterpenelactone named achillolide A (AcA). Major conclusions, solutions, achievements. In this study we could show that TTF and AcA protected cultured astrocytes from H₂O₂ –induced cell death via interference with cell signaling events. TTF inhibited SAPK/JNK, ERK1/2, MEK1 and CREBphosphorylation, while AcA inhibited only ERK1/2 and MEK1 phosphorylation. In addition to its protective activities, TTF had also anti-inflammatory activities, and inhibited the LPS-elicited secretion of the proinflammatorycytokinesInterleukin 6 (IL-6) and IL-1b from cultured microglial cells. Moreover, TTF and AcA protected neuronal cells from glutamate and Abcytotoxicity by reducing the glutamate and amyloid beta induced levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and via interference with cell signaling events induced by Ab. These compounds also reduced amyloid precursor protein net processing in vitro and in vivo in a mouse model for Alzheimer’s disease and improvedperformance in the novel object recognition learning and memory task. Conclusion: TTF and AcA are potential candidates to be developed as drugs or food additives to prevent, postpone or ameliorate Alzheimer’s disease. Implications, both scientific and agricultural.The synthesis ofAcA and TTF is very complicated. Thus, the plant itself will be the source for the isolation of these compounds or their precursors for synthesis. Therefore, Achilleafragrantissima could be developed into a new crop with industrial potential for the Arava-Negev area in Israel, and will generate more working places in this region.

The necessity to improve broiler thermotolerance and live performance led to the following hypothesis: Appropriate comprehensive incubation treatments that include significant temperature management changes will promote angiogenesis and will improve acquisition of thermotolerance and carcass quality of heavy broilers through epigenetic adaptation. It was based on the following questions: 1. Can TM during embryogenesis of broilers induce a longer-lasting thermoregulatory memory (up to marketing age of 10 wk) that will improve acquisition of thermotolerance as well as increased breast meat yield in heavy broilers? 2. The improved sensible heat loss (SHL) suggests an improved peripheral vasodilation process. Does elevated temperature during incubation affect vasculogenesis and angiogenesis processes in the chick embryo? Will such create subsequent advantages for heavy broilers coping with adverse hot conditions? 3. What are the changes that occur in the PO/AH that induce the changes in the threshold response for heat production/heat loss based on the concept of epigenetic temperature adaptation? The original objectives of this study were as follow: a. to assess the improvement of thermotolerance efficiency and carcass quality of heavy broilers (~4 kg); b. toimproveperipheral vascularization and angiogenesis that improve sensible heat loss (SHL); c. to study the changes in the PO/AH thermoregulatory response for heat production/losscaused by modulating incubation temperature. To reach the goals: a. the effect of TM on performance and thermotolerance of broilers reared to 10 wk of age was studied. b. the effect of preincubation heating with an elevated temperature during the 1ˢᵗ 3 to 5 d of incubation in the presence of modified fresh air flow coupled with changes in turning frequency was elucidated; c.the effect of elevated temperature on vasculogenesis and angiogenesis was determined using in ovo and whole embryo chick culture as well as HIF-1α VEGF-α2 VEGF-R, FGF-2, and Gelatinase A (MMP2) gene expression. The effects on peripheral blood system of post-hatch chicks was determined with an infrared thermal imaging technique; c. the expression of BDNF was determined during the development of the thermal control set-point in the preoptic anterior hypothalamus (PO/AH). Background to the topic: Rapid growth rate has presented broiler chickens with seriousdifficulties when called upon to efficiently thermoregulate in hot environmental conditions. Being homeotherms, birds are able to maintain their body temperature (Tb) within a narrow range. An increase in Tb above the regulated range, as a result of exposure to environmental conditions and/or excessive metabolic heat production that often characterize broiler chickens, may lead to a potentially lethal cascade of irreversible thermoregulatory events. Exposure to temperature fluctuations during the perinatal period has been shown to lead to epigenetic temperature adaptation. The mechanism for this adaptation was based on the assumption that environmental factors, especially ambient temperature, have a strong influence on the determination of the “set-point” for physiological control systems during “critical developmental phases.” Recently, Piestunet al. (2008) demonstrated for the first time that TM (an elevated incubation temperature of 39.5°C for 12 h/d from E7 to E16) during the development/maturation of the hypothalamic-hypophyseal-thyroid axis (thermoregulation) and the hypothalamic-hypophyseal-adrenal axis (stress) significantly improved the thermotolerance and performance of broilers at 35 d of age. These phenomena raised two questions that were addressed in this project: 1. was it possible to detect changes leading to the determination of the “set point”; 2. Did TM have a similar long lasting effect (up to 70 d of age)? 3. Did other TM combinations (pre-heating and heating during the 1ˢᵗ 3 to 5 d of incubation) coupled with changes in turning frequency have any performance effect? The improved thermotolerance resulted mainly from an efficient capacity to reduce heat production and the level of stress that coincided with an increase in SHL (Piestunet al., 2008; 2009). The increase in SHL (Piestunet al., 2009) suggested an additional positive effect of TM on vasculogenesis and angiogensis. 4. In order to sustain or even improve broiler performance, TM during the period of the chorioallantoic membrane development was thought to increase vasculogenesis and angiogenesis providing better vasodilatation and by that SHL post-hatch.

Tochukwu Nweze, lecturer in the Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and, PhD student in MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge talks about his recent paper on parentally deprived Nigerian children having enhanced working memory ability, how important is it to study cultural differences in cognitive adaption during and following periods of adversity, and how can mental health professionals translate this understanding of difference into their work.