Urban cultures in (post)colonial central Europe
, culture urbaine, capitalisme, marxisme, ville coloniale, identité, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Berlin, Varsovie, Lisiak Agata Anna
<div><b>Abstract from the publisher : </b></div> </div> Berlin, Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw are cities indelibly marked by more than forty years of Soviet influence. Urban Cultures in (Post) Colonial Central Europe explores the ways in which these major urban centers have redefined their identities in the last two decades. The author suggests that they are both Central European and (post) colonial spaces and that the locations of their (post)coloniality can be found predominantly in communicative and media processes and their results in architecture, film, literature, and new media.<br /> <br /> Agata Anna Lisiak analyzes Berlin, Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw as (post)colonial cities because their politics, cultures, societies, and economies have been shaped by two centers of power: the Soviet Union as the former colonizer, whose influence remains visible predominantly in architecture, infrastructure, social relations, and mentalities, and the Western culture and the Western and/or global capital as the current colonizer, whose impact extends over virtually all spheres of urban life. The cities discussed are not exclusively postcolonial or solely colonial: they are “in-between” the two predicaments and, hence, are best described as (post)colonial. The (post)colonial and “in-between peripheral” identities and locations of the Central European capitals complement each other, and their analysis provides a relevant perspective on the transformation processes that have been shaping the region after 1989.</div> </div> <b>Agata Anna Lisiak</b> completed her PhD in 2009 in communication and media studies at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. Most recently, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in urban studies at the National Sun Yat-sen University where her research extended to Asian port cities.</div> </div>
Agata Anna Lisiak
Purdue University Press
December 2010
214
Ouvrage
Modernity and the cities of the Jews. Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History (No. 2)
modernity, modernité, twentieth century, vingtième siècle, Jewish, juif, histoire urbaine, Venice, Venise, Livorno, Livourne, Trieste, Odessa, Alexandria, Alexandrie, Vienna, Vienne, Budapest, Warsaw, Varsovie, New York, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Minsk, Facchini Cristiana
<div><b>Extract from the introduction by Cristiana Facchini :<br /> </b></div> </div> First of all, our journey is meant to be a snapshot of Jewish culture through cities, but it also aims to depict a much more complicated picture of the interplay between modernity and Jewish culture. It tries to connect the perspective of time and the relevance of place in Jewish history, whilst underlining recurrent cultural patterns or significant differences amongst Jewish cultures of different periods and places. Both dimensions are relevant in order to better comprehend the response of Jews to the challenges brought about by the rise and spread of modernity. In doing so, we thought it might be enlightening to perform a sort of cultural pilgrimage through the cities that either are, or have been at some point, of great significance and relevance to the Jews.<br /> <br /> Why cities? Because cities tell stories. Their streets and architecture are like the convolutions of a nautilus shell, a natural history of the living cultures that produced them. If modern European history is inextricably linked to the history of its cities, modern European Jewish history may also be reconstructed through the cities where Jews have dwelt. <br /> <br /> The connection between cities and the Jewish people is deep and well documented. From ancient times, Jews found their way to the most important cities of the day. Even beyond the cities of the ancient Jewish commonwealth (the second Temple period), Jews concentrated themselves in important cultural centers of the Mediterranean world, such as Alexandria and Rome. Their contribution to the history of Western culture is well understood, although work remains to be done on a more diverse cultural geography through the early modern period. Jews disappeared from some cities, leaving feeble traces; others bear witness to their presence through the ages.</div> </div> <b>Contents of the Focus section:</b></div> </div> Cristiana Facchini - Modernity and the cities of the Jews</div> Cristiana Facchini - The city, the Ghetto and two books. Venice and Jewish early modernity</div> Francesca Bregoli - The port of Livorno and its </div> Tullia Catalan - The ambivalence of a port-city. The Jews of Trieste from the 19th to the 20th century</div> Joachim Schlör - Odessity: In search of transnational Odessa (or "Odessa the best city in the world: All about Odessa and a great many jokes")</div> Dario Miccoli - Moving histories. The Jews and modernity in Alexandria, 1881-1919</div> Albert Lichtblau - Ambivalent modernity: The Jewish population in Vienna</div> Konstantin Akinsha - Lunching under the Goya. Jewish collectors in Budapest at the beginning of the twentieth century</div> François Guesnet - Thinking globally, acting locally: Joel Wegmeister and modern Hasidic politics in Warsaw</div> Mark A. Raider - Stephen S. Wise and the urban frontier: American Jewish life in New York and the Pacific Northwest at the dawn of the 20th century</div> Ehud Manor - "A source of satisfaction to all Jews, wherever they may be living". Louis Miller between New York and Tel Aviv, 1911</div> Elissa Bemporad - Issues of gender, Sovietization and modernization in the Jewish metropolis of Minsk</div> Mario Tedeschini Lalli - Descent from paradise: Saul Steinberg's Italian years (1933-1941)</div> </div> <b>Cristiana Facchini </b>is Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Sciences, University of Bologna.</div> </div>
NC
Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea (CDEC)
October 2011
Revue
http://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/index.php?issue=2