Representing the victorious past: Chinese revolutionary TV drama between propaganda and marketization

This paper examines the changes and continuities in TV representations of Chinese Communist Party’s revolutionary history and interprets them within the broader context of China’s political, economic and cultural transformations since the 1990s. Drawing on a comparative analysis of three state-sponsored TV dramas produced between the late 1990s and mid-2010s, it traces how the state-sanctioned revolutionary narratives have changed over time in response to the Party’s propaganda imperatives on the one hand, and to the market-oriented production environment on the other. The paper argues that while recent TV productions in the new century have made increasing concessions to audience taste by adopting visually stimulating depictions and introducing fictional characters as points of identification for the audience, the revolutionary narratives were still aligned with the Party’s propaganda agenda at different times. This shows the ongoing competition between ideological and commercial interests in Chinese TV production during the era of market reforms.

Fracturismul în câmpul literar românesc

Fracturism proved to be the “spearhead” of the 2000 generation. The first and by far the most radical literary group formed after 1989, this promotion became the cultural expression of a difficult context in the post-revolutionary history of Romania. The aim of this study is to analyze the origin, the function and the effects of the Fracturist ideas proposed by Marius Ianuș and Dumitru Crudu in 1998. Most literary interpretations failed to capture the specificity of this promotion. This is due to the fact that the aesthetic program was never a priority for the Fracturists. It can be emphasized that Fracturism appeared in a specific set of historical, political, social, institutional and cultural circumstances. The present analysis aims to clarify the complex links between the difficult post-communist transition, the crisis of the Romanian literary field and the ostentatious literary expression of the new authors. In this regard, a certain performative dimension of fracturism can be theorized: the poets and prose writers of the new millennium will militate against a distressing social reality by changing the very role of the contemporary author.

The big history of the small homeland (about the book of E. V. Elantsev «The village of Abat and Abat volost in the beginning of the XVIII – early XX centuries»)

This publication is an analytical review of the popular science work of the Tyumen local historian Yevgeny Vladimirovich Elantsev «Abatskoye village and Abatskaya volost at the beginning of the 18th – beginning of the 20th centuries», published in the city of Ishim this year. The author of the review is one of the official reviewers of the book, which covers two hundred years of pre-revolutionary history using the example of a large administrative- territorial unit that was part of the Ishim district of the Tobolsk province (now the territory of the southeast of the Tyumen region). According to the author of the review, the publication makes a significant contribution to the study of the socio-economic development of Western Siberia in the 18th – early 20th centuries. The principles of the system and the determinism made it possible to analyze the publication, regarded as a phenomenon of science, having its own structure, at the same time, entering into the community of historical and local history knowledge. Based on the specifics of the topic, the main scientific method used to write this publication is problematic. Noting the relevance, novelty, as well as a number of other undoubted advantages of the book novelty, the review also contains subjective critical passages, which are regarded as possible ways for further information improvement of the publication and study of the topic. The author of the review concludes that Yevgeny Vladimirovich Elantsev presented to the scientific community a full-fledged, high-quality historical and local lore work, which has rich facts and is focused on a number of applied areas of the humanitarian sphere. The review is addressed to a wide circle of readers, including, first of all, researchers of the history of historical science, Russian historiography, the pre- revolutionary history of Russia and the local history of Siberia, and the practice of local history.

Behind and Beyond Lenin and Dzerzhinskiy: Soviet-Polish Cooperation in Historical-Revolutionary Cinema (1960s–1980s)

Lenin and Dzerzhinskiy were the most promoted “divinities” in Soviet popular culture. The two leaders also had valuable characteristics for propagandising the “friendship of peoples” between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of Poland: Lenin had lived two years in the Krakow region whereas Polish revolutionary Dzerzhinskiy became a statesman in Soviet Russia. Between the 1960s and 1980s, Soviets and Poles coproduced three movies featuring Lenin and Dzerzhinskiy as transnational heroes: Lenin in Poland, by Sergey Yutkevich and Evgeniy Gabrilovich (1966), No Identification Marks (1979–1980) and Fiasco of Operation “Terror” (1981–1983) by Anatoliy Bobrovskiy and Yulian Semënov. The paper considers the interactions between Soviet and Polish professionals during the preparation, the shooting, and the release of these movies as examples of the “Statesocialist Mode of Production” and of its “micro-politics” (Szczepanik 2013). In the 1960s, Soviets and Poles officially got along well at the ideological level. Yet a muffled antagonism continued about the representation of their nation. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, revolutionary history about Dzezhinsiy was a mere setting for mainstream movies. Once political issues had been driven to the background, the professional advantage of joint movie productions became more obvious. Co-production offered professionals multiple opportunities: to enjoy tourism abroad, go shopping, improve skills by working with foreign colleagues and cutting-edge technologies. Although the involvement of some might have been motivated by personal interests, both countries ended up benefiting from the joint projects.

RUSSIAN FORMAL AND INFORMAL EDUCATION: SIBERIAN EXPERIENCE OF A DIALOGUE OF CULTURES

Purpose of the research: This article aims to find national commonalities that will help ensure the harmonization of interethnic relations and create a unified educational space of the country, considering national and regional characteristics inherent in the subjects of the Russian Federation. Methodology: The methods were determined by the specifics of theoretical and historical research: systemic, historiographic, axiological, and socio-cultural approaches to the research of the school education evolution; the research and analysis of archival and historical-literary sources, including materials of dissertations and applied research on the educational problems in Yakutia; the documents of the People’s Commissariat of Education: orders, instructions, circular letters, statistical reports, and others, and reference materials, containing specific information on the problem under discussion. Main Findings: The research and use of domestic historical experience identified the continuity between the school of the past and the present, to creatively interpret and preserve all the valuable lessons from the experience of domestic and foreign pedagogy. Application of this research: It was revealed and established that this was necessary due to the diversity of natural-geographical, demographic, ethnic, cultural, educational, and other conditions in Russia and the search for solutions to difficult problems of interethnic cooperation. Our research aims to identify value- and activity-based foundations that underlie the activities of political exiles and ethno-pedagogical experience in Yakutia. Novelty/Originality of this research: The research opens up prospects for fundamental scientific and applied research in the field of pre-revolutionary history of pedagogy and education, the development of cultural dialogue ideas related to the problems of education, the scientific substantiation of modern innovative strategies for education in national regions.

RUSSIAN FORMAL AND INFORMAL EDUCATION: SIBERIAN EXPERIENCE OF A DIALOGUE OF CULTURES

Purpose of the research: This article aims to find national commonalities that will help ensure the harmonization of interethnic relations and create a unified educational space of the country, considering national and regional characteristics inherent in the subjects of the Russian Federation. Methodology: The methods were determined by the specifics of theoretical and historical research: systemic, historiographic, axiological, and socio-cultural approaches to the research of the school education evolution; the research and analysis of archival and historical-literary sources, including materials of dissertations and applied research on the educational problems in Yakutia; the documents of the People’s Commissariat of Education: orders, instructions, circular letters, statistical reports, and others, and reference materials, containing specific information on the problem under discussion. Main Findings: The research and use of domestic historical experience identified the continuity between the school of the past and the present, to creatively interpret and preserve all the valuable lessons from the experience of domestic and foreign pedagogy. Application of this research: It was revealed and established that this was necessary due to the diversity of natural-geographical, demographic, ethnic, cultural, educational, and other conditions in Russia and the search for solutions to difficult problems of interethnic cooperation. Our research aims to identify value- and activity-based foundations that underlie the activities of political exiles and ethno-pedagogical experience in Yakutia. Novelty/Originality of this research: The research opens up prospects for fundamental scientific and applied research in the field of pre-revolutionary history of pedagogy and education, the development of cultural dialogue ideas related to the problems of education, the scientific substantiation of modern innovative strategies for education in national regions.

Ratatouille and Restaurants

This chapter uses scholarship on the post-revolutionary history of haute cuisine, French food, chefs, Parisian restaurants and kitchen culture, rats, and animal tales to envision Disney•Pixar’s Ratatouille not as a sunny story of alterity leading necessarily to a more egalitarian and inclusive future. The vermin signifier and extermination paradigms motivate the action through most of the movie; although at the end they are absent at Remy’s restaurant of interspecies detente, the movie does not portray a universal revolution of “separate but equitable” social spaces. Outside the restaurant, there is no indication that the social structure which produced the oppression and violence throughout most of the film has changed. Instead, Remy’s bistro is a space for ethical inquiry to engage in possibilities, where, within its limited space, a Bakhtinian dialogic persists between humans and animals to explore ways to live in harmony.

‘We’ll Make Our Own Rules’: Postcolonial Cinematic Reclamations of Irish Revolutionary History'

This paper analyzes Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins’ (1996) functionality as a post-colonial national Irish enterprise and its establishment of a ‘sovereign’ cinematic identity through representations of the struggle for Home Rule. A film made “by Ireland, for Ireland,” Michael Collins exists within the canon of ‘ceasefire cinema’ and remains a landmark in Irish film history because of its historical content, international interest, and enormous Irish investment in its production. Notably, however, it was also immensely controversial; in the United Kingdom, for instance, many critics argued that Jordan’s work would incite nationalist violence in the midst of a fragile ceasefire. Additionally, because of the involvement of American production companies and American actors, many questioned the authenticity behind the aforementioned claim of Irish authenticity. Thus, these factors and responses beg the questions: ‘how can a film claim to be representative of a country’s identity, historical trauma, and struggles for autonomy if it is the result of another?’ and ‘does the depiction of colonial violence serve to redeem or abet?’ This paper will employ Michael Collins as a vehicle to explore these questions as well as the complex natures of Irish cultural and historical autonomy and post-colonial cinematic identities.