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Between Science and Utopia

Physical and Astronomical Notions within French and Polish Fourierism

Piotr Kuligowski and Quentin Schwanck

Abstract

This article investigates the role of physical and astronomical notions in the formation process of transnational political ideologies. It does so by focusing on the striking example of nineteenth-century early socialist movements, particularly Fourierism. Indeed, Fourier's bold cosmogony enabled him to connect many fields of knowledge, and soon became a powerful vehicle for his ideas on the international scale. The article likewise analyses the ideological process through which Fourierist astronomical conceptions were adopted by foreign socialists, focusing on examples of Polish thinkers such as Jan Czyński and Stanisław Bratkowski who, in drawing on Fourierist ideas and usage of scientific terms, tried to embed his vocabulary in the ongoing nineteenth-century debates about Polish history and, more generally, the burning issue of the independence of the Polish state. Our comparative analysis highlights the contextual influences which contributed to re-shaping such ideas within a new absorbing context.

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A Failed Attempt to Create an International Community of Communist Asian Studies in 1955

Huaiyu Chen

Abstract

East German sinologists organized an international conference on East Asian studies in Leipzig in October 1955, bringing together scholars from most communist states and several scholars from Western Europe. This conference served to unite sinologists from both the Communist Bloc and West Germany in the early Cold War era. Since the Chinese delegation was particularly honored, this article suggests that China expanded its political influence in East Europe after the Korean War and the death of Stalin, which prompted a tension within the international communist community, especially between China and the Soviet Union. Moreover, this conference demonstrated a strong “modern turn” in the rising field of Asian studies, sinology in particular, because of the rise of the People's Republic of China in the 1950s.

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La question identitaire dans l'itinéraire de Présence Africaine

Etienne Lock

Abstract

This article examines the issue of identity as expressed in the historical journey of the intellectual movement Présence Africaine. It highlights a fundamental dimension of the commitment of that movement not yet explored in academic research. The current study uncovers the challenges and the great events that shaped the reputation of Présence Africaine as an African intellectual movement with a journal and a publishing house. It also deals with the identity issue through philosophical and theological debates as well as in reference to the independence era in Africa. The relevance of such a study is due to the topicality of the identity issue for contemporary societies.

Résumé

Cet article est une réflexion sur la question identitaire telle que portée et exprimée dans l'itinéraire historique du mouvement Présence Africaine. Il met en exergue une dimension fondamentale, voire l'essence même de l'engagement de ce mouvement, jusqu'ici non explorée. Tout en faisant redécouvrir les défis et de grands événements qui ont fait la notoriété de Présence Africaine soutenue par une revue et une maison d'édition, cette réflexion s'articule aussi autour des débats philosophiques et théologiques au sein de ce mouvement, et se déploie par ailleurs en référence aux indépendances africaines. L'opportunité d'une telle réflexion s'explique par le fait que la question identitaire reste un enjeu important pour les sociétés contemporaines.

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The Leftist “Imagined Community”

The Transnational Imagination of Left-Wing Subversive Organizations in Western Europe

Mikuláš Pešta

Abstract

This article concerns radical leftist subversive organizations in Western Europe in the 1970s and 1980s and their transnational shared imagination. It shows that despite the scarcity of direct contacts, there existed a sense of belonging to the same transnational current, the “imagined community.” On selected criteria (Images – Semantics – Practice), the article provides analysis of the shared tropes in self-perception and in the communication. The patterns were shared among the Western European subversive organizations but also imported from the countries of the Global South. The article further presents the lack of effort of the subversive organizations to create their own mark and graphic identity, whether consciously or not, to become a part of the “global anti-imperialist front.” It puts into question the utility of the traditional categorization of subversive organizations and discusses the use of the term “terrorism” regarding its self-perception and global context.

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Une lutte à trois

les propriétaires fonciers anglais et la répartition du revenu national dans le Capital (1867)

Mathieu J. Lainé

Abstract

A close reading of chapters XXVI–XXXIII of Capital, vol. I (1865–1867) shows that Marx (mis)took the contingencies of English history for genuine historical necessities. But it also shows that landowners form an actual social class in Capital, one that plays an actual role in Marx's own theory of value. In fact, reading these chapters allows us to confidently answer that famous rhetorical question Marx first asked himself in chapter LII of Capital, vol. III (1864–1865): “Was macht Lohnarbeiter, Kapitalisten, Grundeigenthümer zu Bildnern der drei großen gesellschaftlichen Klassen?” (“Comment se fait-il que ce soient les ouvriers salariés, les capitalistes et les propriétaires fonciers qui constituent les trois grandes classes de la société?”). Unlike what we are sometimes led to believe, Marx actually answered that question.

Résumé

La lecture des chapitres XXVI-XXXIII du livre I du Capital (1865–1867) montre que Marx prenait les vicissitudes ou les contingences de l'histoire anglaise pour d'authentiques nécessités historiques. Mais elle montre aussi que les propriétaires fonciers forment une classe sociale sui generis, qui joue un rôle décisif dans la théorie de la valeur. De fait, la lecture de ces chapitres permet aujourd'hui de répondre avec certitude à la fameuse question oratoire que se posait Marx au chapitre LII du livre III du Capital (1864–1865): “Was macht Lohnarbeiter, Kapitalisten, Grundeigenthümer zu Bildnern der drei großen gesellschaftlichen Klassen?” (“Comment se fait-il que ce soient les ouvriers salariés, les capitalistes et les propriétaires fonciers qui constituent les trois grandes classes de la société?”) et à laquelle il n'aurait supposément jamais répondu.

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How Should Historians Talk about Spatial Agency?

Paul Stock

Abstract

In recent years, it has become commonplace to argue that space is an important topic in the humanities and social sciences. But what does space do? Can we speak of space as having agency? Historians’ responses to these questions are strikingly varied. Some propose an almost deterministic role for spatial characteristics, while others deny that space can have any causal function at all. This article seeks to navigate a path between these unsatisfactory extremes. It uses insights from material culture studies and actor-network theory to discuss ways of re-framing agency as an assemblage of human and non-human affects. Agency can thus be defined not in terms of first causes and definitive outcomes, but instead as a coincidence of occurrences. This allows historians to speak of “spatial agency” as the emplacement of affective elements, the gathering of agencies at a particular site and moment.

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Illyria Remembered

On Some French Memoirs of the Illyrian Provinces 1809–1813

David McCallam

Abstract

This article examines how four French memorialists recall and represent the former imperial territories of the Illyrian Provinces (1809–1813) on the eastern Adriatic seaboard. It explores how their memoirs deploy Enlightenment ethnography and Romantic exoticism in distinct ways while problematizing these approaches in light of lived experiences in the region. The article thus sheds light on the evolving character of tropes about the western Balkans in early nineteenth-century France, highlighting the influence the landscapes, cultures, and peoples of the territories had on the French officials posted there, including on their later self-presentation as memorialists.

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Pays des brumes

The Persistence of Poetic Realism in French Cinema of the Occupation

Barry Nevin

Abstract

Whereas the aesthetics and politics of poetic realism in French prewar cinema have been analyzed in depth, the extent to which poetic realism persisted in French cinema of the Occupation and the textual space that it created for spectators within this cultural context remain comparatively neglected. Responding to this critical oversight, this article analyzes Christian-Jaque's Voyage sans espoir (1943) and Jean Grémillon's Lumière d'été from three perspectives: first, it evinces iconography in each that was central to the 1930s poetic realist films directed by figures such as Marcel Carné, Jean Renoir, and Jacques Feyder; second, it illustrates how poetic realism's characteristic focus on gender was reconfigured during the Occupation; third, it determines how these aesthetic and social aspects spoke to French society under occupation. This article ultimately argues that poetic realist praxis persisted during the war years and constituted a major vector of resistance against German rule and the Vichy government.

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Posesión de Tiempo Inmemorial (Possession of Time Immemorial)

Tenants in Court and Proprietary Formalization. Rengo, Chile, 1820–1830

Víctor Brangier and Mauricio Lorca

Abstract

This study focuses on disputes between small and medium tenants, who sought to formalize old land rights. The context under study is Rengo Valley, Chile, between 1820 and 1830, where there was increasing pressure to clarify rights over possessions. The analysis of a sample of 31 trials showed the relevance of the judicial use of the figure Posesión de Tiempo Inmemorial (Possession of Time Immemorial). This was a resource derived from the value of possession in the Hispanic American agrarian legal culture, one that the litigants used strategically. This study's findings provide new data on the use of socially valued legal figures in justice to defend possession, thus contributing to the discussion on the dispossession of peasants in contexts of proprietary formalization.

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Senses and Gender in Modern and Ancient Greek Healing Rituals

Evy Johanne Håland

Abstract

This article presents ethnographic fieldwork combined with studies of historical sources to explore modern and ancient healing rituals in Greece. It focuses on the importance of the senses, especially smell, taste, and sight, in relation to gendered practices and beliefs about healing. In Greece, healing rituals are generally connected with the domestic sphere where women are the dominant agents of power. Based upon the author's fieldwork, the article presents the “female sphere” from the perspectives of female informants. It seeks to deconstruct male perceptions of women and their magic healing rituals that appear in ancient sources produced by men, by a comparison with the modern material.