This thesis uses a language perspective to examine the complex relationship between Muslims and Christians in post-Soviet Russia, as well as their attitudes vis-à-vis the state. An important... Show moreThis thesis uses a language perspective to examine the complex relationship between Muslims and Christians in post-Soviet Russia, as well as their attitudes vis-à-vis the state. An important conclusion of this thesis is that a religious language variant does not only signal a speaker's religious identity. By opting for a particular language, by using or avoiding specific religious vocabulary, speakers also aim to secure their belonging to desired ethnic, national and political groups. Therefore, along with Orthodox Christians, also Russia’s Muslims instrumentalise the religious variant of the Russian language to gain political influence and social recognition. This process, in turn, affects the prestige of Islamic vernaculars spoken in the country, as the thesis demonstrates through the example of the Tatar language. These sociolinguistic changes, in fact, reflect significant developments within Russia's Islam and Orthodox Christianity. The study reveals that the official institutions of these two religions undergo the process of convergence. Namely, they develop similar views on Russia’s domestic and foreign politics, as well as comparable doctrinal lines of defence against the challenges of modernity, and both of them interpret and protect societal moral norms along the same conservative principles. Show less
My research is based on transculturalism in the works of Iranian authors living in France since the 1980’s. Referring to the cultural interbreeding, transculturalism constitutes a field of research... Show moreMy research is based on transculturalism in the works of Iranian authors living in France since the 1980’s. Referring to the cultural interbreeding, transculturalism constitutes a field of research, which is becoming increasingly important in numerous countries. In literature this concept concerns hybrid works, i.e. works emanating from two or more different cultures. In French-Persian creations it shows the mixture between a Western tradition of novel and the dominating place of lyricism and poetry in the Eastern writing. It may open also to an interesting course of reflection in the cultural and social domain of multiculturalism and transculturalism more in general. It aims at current issues seen from a double perspective: the interdependency of the different cultures and a new type of literature from the perspective of writing. Those creations are intermediary between the artist in exile and the receiving society. They transmit values of interculturalism, permitting interaction between cultures. But also represent transculturalism, which transcends the simple ‘dialogue’ between two cultures to reach an original synthesis. My goal was to search hybrid factors in these works and to see how they are carried out concretely in the texts. Then we see who these works might be qualified as transcultural. Show less
orms of representation and imagination of communities in the Indonesian audio-visual mediascape, and addresses the impact of discourses and film mediation practices on the production of collective... Show moreorms of representation and imagination of communities in the Indonesian audio-visual mediascape, and addresses the impact of discourses and film mediation practices on the production of collective identities and social realities. The account ranges from discourses on idealized Indonesian identities in television and film discourses under President Soeharto’s New Order regime, to a topsy-turvy heated debate about the representation of the Indonesian nation and the social and daily-lived realities of the people in film and on television during the era of Reform, up to 2007 Show less
