This dissertation examines the continued, yet hitherto overlooked, engagement of the Greek community in Egypt from the period after the en masse departure of most of its members (1962), until the... Show moreThis dissertation examines the continued, yet hitherto overlooked, engagement of the Greek community in Egypt from the period after the en masse departure of most of its members (1962), until the implementation of the infitāh policies in 1976 by Anwar Sadat. Beyond Departure: The Greeks in Egypt, 1962-1976 explores the Greeks’ multiple personal, local and institutional histories that make up the Greek presence in history after 1962. It reveales the diversity of Greek experiences based on geographical, socioeconomic and individual context. It analyzes the motivations and strategies they employed to respond to the economic and social changes in Egyptian society, such as the end of the Capitulations, WWI and WWII, the formation of the post-colonial state, and the 1961 Nationalization laws, among others, and the relations these events formed between Egyptian nationals and non nationals and the Egyptian state. It also explores how Greeks negotiated their presence, identity and feelings of belonging, in mind and practice, as a diaspora with a transnational agency. Show less
This dissertation investigates the arts of the book in the Abū’l-Khairid dynasty. Often and inaccurately called Shībānid, the Abū’l-Khairids occupied what would become Uzbekistan and surrounding... Show moreThis dissertation investigates the arts of the book in the Abū’l-Khairid dynasty. Often and inaccurately called Shībānid, the Abū’l-Khairids occupied what would become Uzbekistan and surrounding territories across the sixteenth century. It focuses on specific illustrated works of battles and biographies composed in Persian and Turkish; the manuscripts encompass Shāhnāma productions and other works of epic poetry and dynastic history. The political and artistic strength of the Abū’l-Khairids was short-lived, but significant. Their leaders exchanged embassies with the Ottomans in Turkey and Mughals in India, and sparred with the Safavids in Iran. Although the official dates of the Abū’l-Khairid dynasty span 1500–1599, the examination extends the margins by two decades on either side. The focus is on the copyists and illustrators who contributed to the book creations, even if they worked in other artistic centers and political regions at other times.These manuscripts, and the scribes and painters contributing to them, fostered extended cultural exchanges between khans in Central Asia and their regional counterparts: Safavid shahs, Ottoman sultans, and Mughal emperors. These interactions were not confined to high echelons, however, and the study also traces the migrations of artistic talent across courts and commercial hubs during periods of dynastic rivalry and economic strain. Ambassadors, pilgrims, merchants, scholars, and artisans transported the objects. In the analysis, art is not separate from political, religious, economic, or intellectual matters but synthesizes art, history, geography, politics, economics, the movement of manuscripts, and the social relationships of the individuals engaged in their manufacture and transit. Show less
This book discusses the dynamic intersection of three bodies of law; adat, Aceh Shari’a and national penal law, and the institutions applying them. It focuses on how these address public morality... Show moreThis book discusses the dynamic intersection of three bodies of law; adat, Aceh Shari’a and national penal law, and the institutions applying them. It focuses on how these address public morality and criminal offences of a sexual nature as they play out in the Gayonese community of Central Aceh dan Bener Meriah districts, Indonesia.The author argues that these three legal systems have complemented and become alternatives to one another. The state, non-state legal actors and adat officials observe certain limits of each legal system and shop the forums available or apply legal differentiation. Among the actors involved, the police is the most influential in directing the use of the three legal systems. They decide which legal system suited best for the victims’, offenders’ and their own interest and they are the bridge between legal systems in the pluralism of penal law in Aceh. These legal developments in Gayo suggest that state recognition of non-state law (adat law) as part of the state legal system may give a high degree of autonomy to adat institutions. This goes against the frequent claim that recognition of adat always leads to more control by the state. Show less
This thesis investigates the formation of the Japanese nation-state from the angle of children’s literature. On the one hand, it elucidates how premodern warrior legends were canonized and adapted... Show moreThis thesis investigates the formation of the Japanese nation-state from the angle of children’s literature. On the one hand, it elucidates how premodern warrior legends were canonized and adapted in children’s literature and textbooks of the Meiji (1686-1912) and Taishō (1912-1926) period to shape the dispositions of young citizens according to various modern ideals. On the other hand, it analyses the role of children’s literature in Japan’s transition to modernity and the identity-formation of the adults involved. This thesis challenges the idea that ‘books for children’ did not exist before the Meiji period by placing the material within the contemporary context. Focusing on the work of the author Iwaya Sazanami (1870-1933), it consequently re-assesses the development of modern children’s literature in Japan through the lens of Yuri Lotman’s theory on cultural memory. The re-appropriation of warrior legends in a modern literary genre for young citizens contributed to the coherence of culture during Japan’s transition to modernity. The new genre moreover signified Japan’s status as a modern society that separates the sphere of childhood from adulthood, thereby providing the latter with a sense of Selfhood and the right to guide both real and metaphorical children in their development. Show less
This dissertation analyzes the changing discourses of Turkish nationalism between 1950s-1980 through the reproduction of political myths in nationalist action/adventure films with historical... Show moreThis dissertation analyzes the changing discourses of Turkish nationalism between 1950s-1980 through the reproduction of political myths in nationalist action/adventure films with historical settings. How myths narrate the nation’s spatial, ancestral, temporal roots, present situation, future, and mission is examined in seventy-one films that recreate the past within the frameworks of different historical-political contexts. The central question is: How does the depiction of the past change through time with the increasing polarizations hence nationalist militancy in the country? With a close reading in combination with film analysis, the depictions of the ideal representative of the Turkish nation, the national leader, warrior, enemies, friends, women, children, the national space, religion, and national mission are revealed. Show less
This thesis examines how innovation is practiced, imagined, mobilized, and reinterpreted by China’s local developers and its subjects. The Chinese innovation movement is not the same as the ... Show moreThis thesis examines how innovation is practiced, imagined, mobilized, and reinterpreted by China’s local developers and its subjects. The Chinese innovation movement is not the same as the “disruptive innovation” of recent years mainly driven by digital technology in the European and North American contexts. The state plays a very salient role in innovation, investing in the social and economic system to provide a constant demand for innovation to unleash the dynamism of development.The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the state’s role in socio-economic transformation and its governance model in innovation activities. This thesis discusses the state-market-society relationship not merely from an institutionalist perspective that focuses on the interplay between the state, the market, and society. I discovered that the state creates a range of government institutions to regulate and shape society. Further, in recent years the local state has been an important producer of the emergence of China’s new civil society that drives innovation and entrepreneurship as ways to enhance social mobility. Show less
The late 1990s saw the emergence on the Chinese poetry scene of a phenomenon called “Poetry of the Nineties” (九十年代诗歌). This happened before the decade in question had reached its end. Different... Show moreThe late 1990s saw the emergence on the Chinese poetry scene of a phenomenon called “Poetry of the Nineties” (九十年代诗歌). This happened before the decade in question had reached its end. Different from what one might expect, the expression does not denote a simple calendar chronology – as in poetry written in the 1990s – but instead points to a literary-critical category, and more specifically to a particular poetics and a network of associated authors and critics. This discrepancy of calendar chronology and literary criticism offers a point of entry into a pivotal moment in critical discourse on contemporary Chinese poetry. Pivotal as it may be, this moment has remained underresearched to date, especially as regards its history, which goes back to the 1980s, and as regards its consequences, which continue to affect scholarship today. The present study addresses this blind spot by asking: What does “Poetry of the Nineties” signify, to whom, and to what effect? It engages with this question by investigating how poetry written in the 1990s is represented in 21st-century Chinese scholarship, and how this representation can be explained. Show less
This dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era... Show moreThis dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era between 2008 and 2012. It examines how Chinese audiences express online nationalist sentiments, representing whether the communication of media events meets the social demands established by “dream discourses.” Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, it focuses on two case studies: the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands incident. The dissertation finds that these mass media events play a significant role in shaping Chinese state nationalism and popular nationalism. The related mass communication helps the Chinese government increase or, at least, maintain its legitimacy through various strategies. The findings of this dissertation also show that as Chinese audiences have increasingly voiced themselves in the information age, the government will keep treating the robust, uneasy entanglement of nationalism, globalization, and digital media more cautiously for its social development and stability. Show less
De primaire focus van dit proefschrift is het onderzoeken van de politieke ideeën van BG Tilak (1856-1920), de congres-extremistische leider van de Indiase nationalistische beweging en, in het... Show moreDe primaire focus van dit proefschrift is het onderzoeken van de politieke ideeën van BG Tilak (1856-1920), de congres-extremistische leider van de Indiase nationalistische beweging en, in het proces, de politieke en intellectuele geschiedenis van Maharashtra en India te reconstrueren tijdens de late 19e en begin 20e eeuw. Deze dissertatie daagt de oudere stijlfiguur uit die Tilak binnen de reikwijdte van de meerderheid van de hindoe-nationalistische politiek plaatst. Het plaatst zijn sociale conservatisme in de heersende sociale overtuigingen van en liturgische lezingen aangeboden door de laat 19e-eeuwse Marathi openbare intellectuelen. De belangrijkste agenda van Tilak was de creatie van een gecollectiviseerd en geradicaliseerd hindoe-zelf, geponeerd tegen het Britse kolonialisme. Zijn creatieve versmelting van moderne westerse historische exegese met Sanskriet kennissystemen in het pleiten voor hoge oudheid voor de Arische beschaving worden onderzocht. Zijn commentaar op de Bhagavad Gītā bood een infusie van ethische principes in massaal politiek activisme. Tilak slaagde erin om provinciale parochialisme ten opzichte van pan-nationale identiteiten te verminderen. Ten slotte stelt dit proefschrift dat het nationalistische ideaal van Tilak beperkt was tot Svarājya of Zelfbeschikking voor India binnen het Britse Gemenebest. Show less
Within the framework of a larger debate on literary history and censorship studies, this research delves deeper into the role of literature in narrating Indonesia’s bleakest pages of history,... Show moreWithin the framework of a larger debate on literary history and censorship studies, this research delves deeper into the role of literature in narrating Indonesia’s bleakest pages of history, namely the events of 1965-66 and the mass killings that followed. The historical legacy of the events was a matter of grave contention within Indonesia and to speak directly and write with honesty about them could become fraught with danger. Throughout most of the 1970s, creative literature in Indonesia was almost totally silent on the background and meaning of the killings of 1965-66, the very specific topic that did not collocate with the values of the authoritarian New Order regime. The aftermath in the lives of individuals who witnessed this tragedy was also skipped over in Indonesian literature. In addition, the traumatic nature of the experience seemed to have been expunged from the memories of witnesses and inhibited a wider group of people from talking. However, against all odds, a few literary authors spoke up and openly addressed this theme in their novels. They were even sympathetic in portraying the victims even though the regime was at the height of its power and exerting maximum social and political control through rampant censorship. In this regard, this dissertation addresses the broader question about what this case of literary production tells us about the nature of censorship under the New Order. Show less
